Pilatus Bank whistle-blower accused Prime Minister Muscat of intimidating her elderly father in Moscow

Published: August 11, 2017 at 6:46pm

Shortly before she left Malta, Maria Efimova wrote to Prime Minister Muscat in an email dated 15th June, telling him to stop making enquiries about her in Moscow and not to send “dodgy people” to her father’s house there to intimidate him.

The email, sent to the Prime Minister’s preferred mode of communication, [email protected], says:

Dr Muscat,

If you have something against me, there is no need to hire a detective in Moscow to find out if my mother has really passed away. My father is 70, he has recently lost his beloved wife, and he is very upset about dodgy people coming to his house and intimidating him.

Speak to me directly and don’t involve my elderly relatives.

Maria Efimova
Mobile telephone number and address included

The Prime Minister did not reply. A screenshot of the actual email is reproduced below with Mrs Efimova’s personal contact details and former home address deleted.

Mrs Efimova is the former Pilatus Bank employee who revealed that the bank kept in its safe two declarations of trust which identify Prime Minister Muscat’s wife as a shareholder of the Panama company Egrant Inc. The revelations caused a major scandal but did not – as most assume to be the case – trigger a general election.

The general election had already been scheduled for 27th May at the time this website reported on the ownership of Egrant Inc. The reports delayed the election by one week, to the following Saturday.

Mrs Efimova’s father worked for the Russian government before his retirement some years ago. Her mother died last year and she was unable to travel to Russia for the funeral because the Courts of Justice in Malta had sequestered both her passports: her foreign-travel passport and the passport which all Russian citizens require to travel within Russian territory. Requests for the release of her passports at the time were refused.