A prosecution request for legal assistance in the form of letters rogatory for information from authorities in Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Leichtenstein, New Zealand and Brazil sparked heated exchanges in court on Monday, with questions raised by the presiding magistrate and the defence over why Claude-Ann Sant Fournier, a former reporting officer at Pilatus Bank, had been prosecuted when investigations are still underway.

Sant Fournier, a lawyer, stands accused of aiding and abetting money laundering activities both in her personal capacity as well as in her former official role at the bank.

“Why weren’t these letters  rogatory requested earlier?” lawyer Kathleen Calleja Grima asked.  

Similar questions were asked by Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech.  

“Why was this person charged when information was still being gathered?” she asked.

“Her [Sant Fournier’s] life is totally on hold. How could a professional facing such charges ever hope to find a job?” added defence lawyer Stefan Filletti.

The lawyer then proceeded to dictate a long minute wherein he registered the defence’s objection.

“The defence cannot understand how years after a magisterial inquiry that cost over €7.5 million and when the case has been pending for almost a year, there suddenly crops up this indispensable need for such evidence,” argued Filletti, recalling the “sacrosanct principle” of a fair hearing within a reasonable time.

The prosecution, he insisted, had no right to press charges when it was not convinced of all the evidence and then stultify the proceedings, trying to fill up gaps in the evidence, thus causing serious prejudice to the accused.

Such requests for legal assistance, especially those beyond the EU territory, “could take months if not years,” exclaimed Filletti, pointing out that the court presiding over the compilation of evidence had no option but to uphold the prosecution’s request.

A similar objection was registered by lawyer Stefan Camilleri who is assisting Fabio Axisa, a PWC partner appointed as competent person to represent Pilatus Bank.

On the other hand, AG lawyer Marthese Grech, for the prosecution, said that this evidence was indeed indispensable to the prosecution at this stage, as could be gauged from the contents of the request forms.

Besides, criminal proceedings would not be stultified since other testimonies would continue to be heard while legal time limits would be suspended pending the completion of the letters rogatory.

Some 50 more witnesses still to be heard

“How many more witnesses do you reckon to have?” the magistrate asked the prosecution.

Although an exact number could not be given, the AG lawyer said that there were some “50” more, whereupon the magistrate questioning why the accused had been prosecuted when there were so many other witnesses still to testify and who evidently had not testified at the magisterial inquiry.

The magisterial inquiry had been triggered by suspicious transactions at the bank. The inquiry had allegedly identified a number of people to face criminal charges over their suspected involvement in the alleged criminal activity.

The names of those individuals, besides Sant Fournier, were outed in a court application recently filed by civil society group Repubblika, challenging the Police Commissioner to take the necessary criminal action against all those concerned.

Earlier on Monday, Repubblika once again flagged those names in another sworn application filed in court.

Among those was Antoniella Gauci, head of risk at Pilatus Bank, who appeared to have been copied in a long series of emails about which a representative from Deloitte audit firm testified on Monday.

“We dealt mostly with her. In fact she was copied in most of the emails,” said the witness

Earlier, a court IT expert who worked on the magisterial inquiry, testified that all documents, including shredded paperwork found in the trash bins at the Pilatus Bank office, had been collected and carefully sifted through.

Sant Fournier requested instructions on how to delete data

During that process, experts had come across one note, posted on the desk of a Pilatus employee, saying that Sant Fournier had requested instructions on how to delete certain data on the Know-Your-Client system.

“Did anyone see this file?” Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech asked the prosecution. 

Defence lawyer Stefano Filletti promptly countered that no one had told them about these documents until today, adding that they would have offered an explanation. 

The case continues in October, with full-day sittings being scheduled by the court.

AG lawyer Ramon Bonnett Sladden also assisted the prosecution