Bank of Valletta has denied any direct involvement in a legal battle over tens of millions of dollars stacked in a frozen bank account belonging to a member of the Gaddafi family, contrary to an international news report.
In a story entitled ‘Legal battle brews over Gaddafi’s millions’, The Wall Street Journal said that the BOV account belonged to Mutassim Gaddafi, son of the deposed Libyan dictator.
Though both the former Libyan dictator and his son were killed in the 2011 revolution, the newspaper said the younger Gaddafi’s account was still brimming with cash.
This prompted the Libyan government to start legal proceedings against the bank, claiming BOV was refusing to hand over the money.
However, in a statement, the bank yesterday “categorically” denied that it was a party in legal proceedings related to the reported case.
BOV has always acted, and will continue to act, in strict accordance with any United Nations directives that may be relevant to the reported case
The Maltese bank also stressed that it would never divulge any information regarding its customers, neither to the media nor to the public.
Bank of Valletta is partly owned by the Maltese government, as well as Italian Bank UniCredit Spa, which has a 15 per cent stake.
“BOV has always acted, and will continue to act, in strict accordance with any United Nations directives that may be relevant to the reported case,” the statement said.
The Libyan government is accusing BOV of ignoring safeguards intended to prevent Western banks from doing business with corrupt officials or facilitating corruption.
Consequently, the claim is that the Maltese bank profited from the fees generated by the massive credit card transactions carried out by Mutassim Gaddafi.
The bank is insisting it would not budge from its position until international orders freezing Libyan assets are lifted.
Finance Minister Edward Scicluna told The Wall Street Journal that the account was opened before any sanctions had been imposed, arguing that back then it was completely acceptable to do this kind of business with Libya.
Reports that Mutassim Gaddafi had a BOV account emerged soon after his death in November 2011, when he was captured in Sirte by Libyan rebels.
Back then, the former dictator’s son had been found in possession of two BOV credit cards bearing the name of Capital Resources Limited, a Maltese company registered under his name a year before under a Qawra address.
However, no accounts were ever filed with the Malta Financial Services Authority.
Former Labour Party candidate Joe Sammut, who is listed as the company’s auditor, could not be contacted.
In its story, The Wall Street Journal noted Mr Gaddafi’s frequent shopping sprees using his BOV Visa platinum card in various places around the world.
An undated credit card bill published with the story shows a bill of €158,000 for Dolce & Gabbana products from a shop in Tokyo.
At one time some $60 million was believed to be stashed in his various BOV accounts, the newspaper claimed.
The legal proceedings were started late last year by the Department of Litigation of Libya against Capital Resources Limited.
Sources close to the case explained to Times of Malta that in spite of having two rival governments in Tripoli and Tobruk, the Libyan Attorney General enjoyed the trust of both sides.
However, that may only be part of the story, as in recent months the rival governments were battling each another for the assets acquired in countries like Malta, Italy and Luxembourg during Gaddafi’s reign.