Eleven months ago this week we were all following news as it broke minute by minute. Daphne Caruana Galizia reports Pilatus Bank holds evidence Michelle Muscat owns Egrant. Michelle Muscat denies it. Joseph Muscat says there's nothing to investigate. Lawrence Cutajar eats fried rabbit. Ali Sadr sneaks out of the bank with bags. If we [...]

Maria Efimova called me from a pay-phone in the woman's prison in Athens this morning asking me to pass her thanks to all those who have been and are supporting her. She told me she has been informed of the statements of support since the beginning of her detention in Malta and outside and she [...]

Faithful Edward Zammit Lewis has been wheeled out to insist on TV that Ali Sadr was only carrying bags that fateful night 11 months ago when he was caught on camera carrying heavy bags out of the back door of his bank in the dead of night. It's fascinating that Edward Zammit Lewis does not [...]

(18:20. Adds note below) Someone known to me was at the Commission briefing on their 6 monthly report in the presence of Edward Scicluna still shaken from being woken up early yesterday with news Ali Sadr had been detained. Here's a summary of today's proceedings. At the European Semester (lavish) breakfast meeting, an upbeat introduction [...]

Daphne Caruana Galizia, Peter Caruana Galizia and Andrew Borg Cardona were awarded €12,000 in damages today in a total of 6 libel suits they filed against the Labour party media and exponents of the Labour party for alleging the law firm of Peter Caruana Galizia and Andrew Borg Cardona were awarded government contracts due to [...]

Doubts have been cast on whether Cyprus police went through with filing an international arrest warrant against Maria Efimova following a complaint filed four months ago by a Russian jeweller she worked for over 4 years ago. In an interview with Greek TV news site tvxs.gr, Athens-based lawyer Alexandros Papasteriopoulos clarified Maria Efimova was only [...]

https://youtu.be/Z9udhCjGXCU

MFSA has since yesterday taken responsibility to authorise or otherwise any and all transactions at Pilatus Bank. Cut the confidentiality crap now. We are talking about a criminal conspiracy and we deserve answers. At the time news of the arrest of Ali Sadr in the United States broke, in the dark wee hours of yesterday [...]

There are crooks everywhere you look. And there are crooks in a US jail. And there are crooks in hiding. Surprise, surprise, the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff @keithaschembri did NOT turn up in Court today to face questions on @PanamaPapers. What is he afraid of? #DaphneCaruanaGalizia @ICIJorg https://t.co/PtTPBVtMSm — Simon Busuttil (@SimonBusuttil) March 22, [...]

Maria Efimova has just this morning received the news that her former employer at Pilatus Bank Ali Sadr is in a US jail indicted for financial crimes punishable by more than a century of prison. She had not heard the news having herself been put behind bars a few hours before him when she walked [...]

Guest post by someone known to me. So the Maltese Police Force is trying to justify its lack of action against the Chairman of Pilatus bank Ali Sadr by arguing that the US Authorities never got in touch with them. Not only, but as a gesture of goodwill they are now offering to assist the [...]

Watch John Sweeney's film about innocent looking assets used by Russia to conduct its cold war activities in the rest of the world. One of these is Maltese star Joseph Mifsud a mystery professor never fully explained. And still in hiding. Apart from recommending this film because it's a sheer pleasure to watch, you need [...]

Coverage of yesterday's events on Euronews. "The arrest and the U.S. charges (of and against Ali Sadr) are also a setback for the European Union’s regulators who have attempted to tighten EU banking controls in recent years, putting the European Central Bank in charge of monitoring big euro zone banks." See the full report here.

After the widespread reaction to their first statement, the MFSA issued a clarification saying their order to Pilatus Bank has the effect of not allowing the bank to undertake any transaction without the MFSA's permission. That includes withdrawals. Late. But it happened. Sweet bodements. Good. Thank you, America I guess.

It’s nice to watch them panic. It won’t last long. They will dust themselves off and make it look like they planned it all along. Joseph Muscat reinvented himself into a leading light of Europe having been our own little Nigel Farage for more than a decade. They’re actually trying to pin Pilatus Bank on [...]

The MFSA "forced out" Ali Sadr from the directorship of Pilatus Bank and ordered a freeze of any transactions by him, his fellow directors and senior management and their relatives. So no late night calls to open a loan account to the chairman's sister for a million and a quick transfer of almost half that [...]

Statement by Matthew, Andrew and Paul Caruana Galizia: Malta's authorities failed to hold Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad to account, leaving our mother, Daphne Caruana Galizia, to do so alone. Hashemi Nejad threatened our mother relentlessly, claiming she caused his Malta-based bank, Pilatus Bank, reputational damage. In May last year, Hashemi Nejad brought a $40m lawsuit [...]

Here's Il-Kenniesa's statement calling for the action this evening. If you're coming -- and you should -- it would be a nice touch to bring a broom with you. It's a new spring clean after all. Demanding Resignation of Lawrence Cutajar Following the arrest of Pilatus Bank owner, Ali Sadr Hashemi, in the US, we [...]

UK daily The Times has this morning reported that it “has seen evidence” linking Cambridge Analytica with Christian Kalin owner of Henley & Parterns in interference in elections in St Vincent and the Grenadines one of the countries where Henley and Partners run a passport-sales scheme like they do in Malta. The Times reports that [...]