Reference is being made to reports in the local media over remarks made by President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca last month in response to questions following an address at the Oxford Union in the UK.
She told the audience that Pilatus Bank had been closed down by the Maltese authorities following the initiation of legal proceedings by the United States against the bank’s chairman, after it accused him of circumventing sanctions against Iran through his business activities in Venezuela.
The President further stated that she was not aware of any “legal proof of what Pilatus Bank was doing”, by which she was clearly referring to the evidence in court, since the case against the chairman in the US is still pending. Furthermore, no legal proceedings against the bank are underway in Malta.
It is sad to note that certain individuals have chosen to take the President’s comments completely out of context to create sensationalism, when the intended meaning of the President’s remarks were abundantly clear.