Updated, adds denial from Joe Bannister (18/11/2017)

Yesterday I reported that Joe Bannister, as regulator of the financial services sector in Malta, granted an investment services licence to a company whose designated contact person is co-director with him in a company in the Cayman Islands.

Joe Bannister has this morning got in touch with me to explain why this is not so. This is explained in this report of this story.

Greenwich Dynamic Limited was registered in Malta in December 2013 and licensed to provide management and investment advice. Its designated contact person is Roland Staub, resident of Switzerland. Staub is one of the Directors of Greenwich Dynamic Limited which is fully owned by Finance Suisse (Malta) Limited.

Finance Suisse (Malta) Limited is owned by Roland Staub and Panamanian citizen Doria Imelda Yunda Mina.

The ICIJ leaks showed a common link of Joe Bannister and of Swiss resident Roland Staub with HGI SPC Limited, registered in the Cayman Islands.

 

The leak was from Appleby’s servers that held secret information revealed by the Paradise Papers.

This suggested a manifest conflict of interest where licensor and licensee would secretly be in off-shore business together in a different designation.

Questions were sent to Joe Bannister and remain unreplied at the time of first publication. Attempts to contact Joe Bannister failed.

Updated: Joe Bannister’s response.

In response to questions, this morning Joe Bannister sent in this statement: “I am not co-director with Roland Straub in a Cayman company”.  The leaked Paradise Papers from Appleby suggest otherwise.

On the phone Joe Bannister clarified he had resigned his directorship in 2010 when the fund he was director of in the Caymans decided to relocate to Malta. He had informed of this the Prime Minister of the time Lawrence Gonzi. Roland Staub had taken over after Joe Bannister resignation. Staub subsequently decided to set up a fund management company in Malta in 2013. Joe Bannister admits receiving Staub for a courtesy visit at the time but denies being involved in his licensing.