Malta's financial services watchdog has frozen the assets of scandal-hit Pilatus Bank following the removal by the regulator of the bank's chairman just hours after his arrest in the United States for circumventing United States sanctions against Iran. Before his removal by the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) on Wednesday evening Iranian Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad was the head of Pilatus, the bank at the heart of a corruption scandal exposed by murdered Daphne Caruana Galizia.
In a statement released on Wednesday night the MFSA announced that the bank "has been directed not to transact any business whatsoever irrespective of the client or the counterparty." It added that the measure "applies to all deposits and withdrawals and any disposal of the bank's assets."
Nejad was arrested in the US on Tuesday for his alleged role in a scheme that secretly funnelled $115 million (93 million euros) through the US financial system to Iranian-controlled entities - circumventing US sanctions against Iran. Manhattan US Attorney Geoffrey Berman said in a Justice Department statement that "Nejad created a network of front companies and foreign bank accounts to mask Iranian business dealings in Venezuela and evade US sanctions."
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