May 1, 2016
Bank of Valletta has been accepting business from Libyan nationals without carrying out the necessary customer due diligence legally required of financial institutions, documents leaked to The Malta Independent on Sunday show.
The bank had, in the process, knowingly been in breach of its legal obligations under the prevention of Money Laundering and Funding of Terrorism Regulations according to documentation in the possession of this newspaper.
This breach had also been intentionally concealed from the relevant Maltese authorities. Not only was the bank’s flouting of the law in return for Libyan business concealed from the authorities, but the bank’s officials, according to sensitive documents leaked to this newspaper, had informed the authorities that all proper due diligence was, in fact, being applied across the board when this was not the case. This newspaper also holds documentation showing how the bank went to little or no effort to seek information on the source of the Libyan funds being deposited at Bank of Valletta, a critical step of due diligence for identifying suspicious transactions related to money laundering, politically exposed people or the funding of terrorism.