Just when the dust was starting to settle over Malta's Pilatus Bank/Ali Sadr Hasheminejad scandal, news about the link between Latvia's ABLV Bank and Pilatus, regarding joint money laundering activities, has again focused EU attention upon Malta. To make matters worse, ABLV was actively marketing Malta's CBI passports to its dodgy Azeri and Maltese PEP clients. Latvia is high-risk when its comes to Country Risk; did Malta and Pilatus miss that detail ?
Who was watching the store over in Malta, in its CBI as well as financial regulatory agency ? Or did just too much cash quietly change hands under the table ?
The fact that ABLV blatantly advertised Malta's CBI passport sales program on the bank's website, through its corporate services subsidiary, while engaged in money laundering operations for its clients, including designated State Sponsors of Terrorism, raises the possibility that terrorists, in addition to financial criminals, obtained Maltese CBI passports through ABLV. We are especially concerned about Iranian and North Korean agents inside the Schengen Zone, evading international sanctions.
For those who have opposed the EU's valid objections to ANY Member offering Citizenship by Investment (CBI) passports, we rest our case.
Contributed by Kenneth Rijock - Financial Crime Consultant
Chronicles of Monte Friesner - Financial Crime Analyst
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