Satabank victims have started a project to make known to millions of European citizens and foreign investors, the problems they are facing and the way in which the government is managing the situation.

Accounts at Satabank, a small international bank, were effectively frozen by the Malta Financial Services Authority last month, with EY (formerly Ernst and Young) appointed to administer the bank’s assets in “the best interests of depositors”.

The move had come after a joint inspection and audit by the MFSA and Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit had found shortcomings in the bank’s anti-money laundering procedures.

Depositors have reportedly slipped into “a state of desperation” after they became unable to access their own funds.

In a statement on Tuesday night, the victims said they planned to organise advertising e-mail and social marketing campaigns to generate an average of 50,000 unique visits and up to 5 million unique users.

They said they have managed to target users who were interested in transferring their business to Malta over the past 12 months.

Their goal was to inform these people of Satabank’s history and the “shameful” management of the situation imposed by the MFSA on EY.

The campaign, they said, would end once Satabank unlocked all company accounts.