Nearly €11 billion in Satabank transactions flagged by auditors

Nearly €11 billion in transactions that flowed through the Malta-based Satabank were flagged as suspicious in 2020, auditors EY have said. 

However, more than 800 customers at the now-shuttered bank who were originally flagged by the auditors for further investigation, were eventually given access to their funds after the authorities decided not to press charges. 

An operations report tabled in Parliament on behalf of Finance Minister Clyde Caruana on Wednesday sheds light on the extent of suspected financial foul play discovered at the St Julian’s bank.  

Satabank was effectively shuttered by authorities in 2018 after a joint FIAU and MFSA inspection flagged serious deficiencies in the bank’s anti-money laundering controls.  

This had led regulators to come down hard on the bank.

All 12,000 of Satabank’s accounts were effectively frozen by the Malta Financial Services Authority in 2019, with EY (formerly Ernst and Young) appointed to administer the bank’s assets in “the best interests of depositors”.

Police and financial regulators then moved in to comb through suspicious transactions with potential links to fuel smuggling, drug trafficking and trade with sanctioned...