Tonio Depasquale, a former Bank of Valletta CEO, has resigned from the board of directors of two funds, including the La Valette Sicav plc.
Bank of Valletta insisted the Mr Depasquale’s resignation was a personal decision
He also resigned from the Wignacourt Funds Sicav plc, according to a company announcement on the Malta Stock Exchange, which did not state reasons for his stepping down.
The Malta Financial Services Authority last year found BOV in breach of financial regulations in connection with the La Valette property fund in the first of three investigations.
The bank and subsidiary company Valletta Fund Management Ltd were fined a total of €347,816 for regulatory breaches.
In January, one of the fund’s directors, John Ripard, resigned after the authority reprimanded him – following a second probe – for selling his holdings in the fund before the bank decided to suspend trading, leaving many investors high and dry.
The MFSA concluded that Mr Ripard had sold his shares while in possession of sensitive information that was not available to the public and which he became privy to in his capacity as a director.
BOV deplored “the implications” made in media reports linking the resignation to the La Valette Multi Manager Property Fund, the investigations by the MFSA and Mr Ripard’s resignation. It insisted that Mr Depasquale’s was “a personal decision that followed his retirement from Bank of Valletta last December after a career of over 40 years of distinguished service, the last eight of which he served as the bank’s CEO”.
BOV said that the MFSA investigation, published at the time when Mr Depasquale was still serving as CEO, “fully exonerated” all bank officials from any accusations of taking advantage of privileged information.
Mr Depasquale continues to serve as a director on the boards of Valletta Fund Management Ltd and Valletta Fund Services Ltd, subsidiaries of the BOV Group, as well as the board of Middle Sea Insurance plc, an associate company of the BOV Group.
The Labour Party said on Wednesday that almost a year after the MFSA published its first verdict on BOV’s property fund fiasco, it was yet to publish its findings into allegations that investors were wrongly sold shares in the fund.