Pilatus Bank’s owner and chairman Ali Sadr has written to Socialist MEP Ana Gomes demanding that part of a report linking him to “embezzlement” in Iran be redacted, Times of Malta has learnt.

Mr Sadr also demands that the source of the embezzlement “claim” be revealed.

The embezzlement reference in the report stems from a meeting MEPs had with officials of the Malta Financial Services Authority during a fact-finding mission to Malta at the end of last year.

Ms Gomes headed the delegation that wrote the report.

The MEPs questioned whether the MFSA had asked about the origins of Mr Sadr’s capital in view of “reports” linking his funds to a “conviction for embezzlement in Iran”.

Read: Pilatus set up 'deliberately for money laundering' - Casa

According to the report, the financial services watchdogs told the delegation members it was unaware of such a conviction. A leaked report by the State’s anti-money laundering agency (FIAU) said Mr Sadr was subject to a “criminal investigation, which is under way in a foreign jurisdiction, for money laundering, illegal money transmissions as well as other violations”.

The report by the FIAU, which probed potential money laundering by the Prime Minister’s chief of staff through Pilatus Bank, said Mr Sadr was not believed to be the “main target” of the overseas investigation.

It said it was informed that Mr Sadr was one of those investigated.

In his letter to Ms Gomes, Mr Sadr said the “accusation” in the MEPs’ report was unsubstantiated and entirely false.

He offered to provide Ms Gomes with an official clean record certificate that was recently requested and obtained from the Tehran Public Prosecutor’s Office.

He added that the public release of such false and unsubstantiated claims led him to suffer important reputational damage, both professionally and privately.

Nationalist MEP Roberta Metsola insists the Malta mission report would not be redacted.

Nationalist MEP Roberta Metsola, who sits on the European Parliament’s committee that compiled the report, said the request to redact the report was astonishing.

Dr Metsola said Pilatus Bank, which is based at Ta’ Xbiex, was in for a surprise if it thought it could intimidate the European Parliament into changing the report.

“In Brussels, it cannot operate with the same impunity as the authorities in Malta allow it here. The Parliament report has blown the lid off how it operates, its funding models and links to politically exposed persons,” Dr Metsola said. 

She added that the message from the European Parliament was clear because MEPs would not allow Pilatus to get away with it and would certainly not redact the report.

Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi has proposed a Bill meant to outlaw SLAPP (strategic lawsuits against public participation) lawsuits after Pilatus Bank threatened local media organisations with multi-million dollar legal action in foreign jurisdictions.