Bank of Valletta today described as "grossly offensive and completely untrue and without foundation," comments reportedly made in Parliament by Labour MP Evarist Bartolo.
During the speech, about the controversial La Valette property fund, references were made to the Bank and its officials as part of a “network of freemasons”, and it was also said that “high ranking bank officials had withdrawn €17 million on behalf of the Bank from the Fund" and the officials had “warned relatives and friends to do the same thing”.
In his speech, Mr Bartolo warned the Malta Financial Services Authority that it would be betraying its mission and abrogating its duty if did not give the investigative report on the BOV’s La Vallette Property Fund to all investors. If the MFSA continued to refuse to do this, it would become an accomplice to a network of freemasons. Hundreds of families had been deceived and were not receiving protection from the MFSA, he said.
Speaking during the debate on the opposition motion to set up a permanent committee for family affairs, Mr Bartolo said the report contained lists of high ranking bank officials who, three years ago, had withdrawn €17 million on behalf of the bank from the fund and warned relatives and friends to do the same thing after international companies involved in criminal activities had invested in the fund. People with strong links had withdrawn their investment.
The BOV had made a profit of some €7 million from the fund.
Mr Bartolo said the MFSA was obliged by law to publish the report, adding that this was “a scandal”. Despite the fact that both the MFSA and BOV had a system of checks and balances they allowed this wrongdoing.
He said that some 2,000 Maltese investors – hundreds of them small earners with some coming from the south of Malta – had, six years ago, invested in the fund without knowing its full implications and without being informed that it was aimed at professional investors.
It was the MFSA’s duty to protect these investors and not let the bank offer miserable compensation to uninformed investors who were reluctant to go to court because of the expenses involved and the time the case could drag in court.
Investors had been deceived by the BOV, he said.
If the MFSA wanted to help families it was its duty to take the necessary steps and not be an accomplice in this scandal.
Mr Bartolo also criticised the government for remaining neutral. The minister did not see Our Lady weeping over this scandal, he noted.