Washing machine stunt outside Pilatus Bank greets employees of arrested chairman

Employees of the private bank Pilatus in Ta’ Xbiex were greeted this morning with a mock washing machine ‘monument’, in a send-up of money laundering charges filed against its chairman.

Ali Sadr Hasheminejad was arrested in the United States accused of breaching US sanctions when he facilitated US dollar payments from a Venezuelan housing project his family company, Stratus, was constructing.

The washing machine came complete with a mock memorial stone lampooning the Maltese prime minister Joseph Muscat as having ‘unveiled’ it on the day the bank commenced operations.

[EXPLAINER] Why has Malta’s Pilatus Bank chairman Ali Sadr been arrested in the United States?

Anti-corruption activists yesterday demanded the licence of the bank, which caters to select high net worth clients, be revoked.

The Maltese financial regulator responded by freezing all operations carried out by the bank’s shareholders and directors, but stopped short of withdrawing the trading licence of the bank.

The bank has been at the heart of allegations that it facilitated a $1 million transfer from the Aliyevs of Azerbaijan to the wife of the Maltese prime minister, claims that were vehemently denied and are now the subject of a magisterial inquiry, which has not yet been concluded almost 12 months on