Lino Spiteri and his self-soothing about the National Bank heist in which he participated
Published:
April 29, 2012 at 11:23am
I urge you to read Jeremy Cassar Torregiani’s long letter to Malta Today (link below).
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http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/Grandson-of-former-National-Bank-chairman-takes-Lino-Spiteri-to-task-20120428
“Growing up, I have lived in Malta and around the hypocrisy that this story exposes. The Mintoffian administration took the asset on the basis of a lie, while the subsequent Nationalist administrations stand back and idly take advantage of the situation on two counts. For one, they accuse the Labour party of abuse and foul play… while on the other hand they make hay out of the financial benefits that the foul deed brought to government coffers.
On this note I have only one thing left to say. Irrespective of the evidence collected and the eventual verdict, the National Bank of Malta, founded by my great-grandfather, was stolen. Both sides of the Republic applauded, and the rehashed Bank Of Valletta is now their proudest boast. The Republic grows, and the Bank of Valletta with it, yet the shame of these events are engraved in our country’s history.”
Hear, hear.
I posted the above quotation as a comment here http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120426/business-comment/National-Bank-Group-saga.417154, together with a link to http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/Grandson-of-former-National-Bank-chairman-takes-Lino-Spiteri-to-task-20120428.
Unfortunately, however, the relevant link did not appear under the quotation when my comment was put online on the Times of Malta portal, despite my having included it. I would like Jeremy Cassar Torregiani to know that I was not trying to take credit for his words, but was merely highlighting what he said.
Unfortunately, the link being left out of my comment by The Times may mislead whoever reads it into thinking that the words were my own.
I have just posted a comment to The Times about it, but wanted to clarify the matter here too..
Yana Bland has been provided with more facts than she can handle.
Those who speak the truth are very clear and factual in what they say and write. They will keep on repeating the same facts because they are the truth.
Lino Spiteri has earned a very much deserved reply.
Lino Spiteri’s pathetic attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of the entire country has received the reply it deserves in Jeremy’s letter.
All puerile forays at rewriting history are guaranteed to backfire.
I find it amusing that Lino Spiteri should keep reminiscing about our banking history, especially because selective memory on his part could open a can of worms.
So here is another question for Lino Spiteri concerning the banking system prevailing in Malta in the 70s: can he confirm or deny if the house loan scheme previously available to all Central Bank of Malta employees, and which had been withdrawn, was once again made available for a very short period of time to be availed of only by himself (and maybe by very few other “high executives”) when he was himself the top man at the Bank (governor or acting governor).
Of course, the National Bank of Malta shareholders and directors were not threatened. They were simply saved from themselves by some self-declared financial genius, just like the Central Bank of Malta employees were saved from themselves when they were “advised” that their house loan could be called in should they obey their union.
Only ungrateful people would consider those actions as threats.
I imagine that should Lino Spiteri ever write his autobiography he would describe himself as a champion of the workers, just like his erstwhile master. And if anybody is wondering whether I have an axe to grind, I will tell you that I never availed myself of, nor made any request for, the said house loan scheme.
I write because I feel like throwing up when after 30 to 40 years people project themselves as saviours when the very opposite was true.
Brilliant article, Jeremy.
Lino doth protest too much.
So is it true that files went missing when the bank was seized so that certain hefty loans were never paid?
Hi Daphne – thank you for your comment asking people to read it.
I am answering every comment on the Malta Today website or wherever they appear. Feel free to criticise and I will get back to you with an answer.
Come on Lino, time to shut me up.
Ha Ha, Lino Spiteri is no slouch.
When he makes a fool of himself, it is only for a very well calculated political gain.
He will now lie low for a while.
Can this most scandalous case be taken to the European Court of Justice / Human Rights or the International Court of Justice? Especially when after 38 years no verdict has been forthcoming?
Well done to Jeremy for setting the facts straight.
Those who remember Lino Spiteri back in those daysknow that he is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and not the reasonable moderate he masquerades as these days.
I have one question for Mr Cassar Torreggiani: why do you say both parties applauded?
I am reading quite a lot about our recent history and I do not seem to find anything which shows that the Pn accepted the situation. Indeed, at the time the party was still gearing up to fight Mintoiff’s regime and certainly it was still maturing.
One more question:why was an out-of-court settlement never reached, not even recently?
I refuse to comment directly on the Malta Today website because I boycott anyone who tries to earn money through axe-grinding, rumour-spreading and other despicable actions which can easily be attributed to Malta Today.
Hi Lomax – if you read the parliamentary debate you can see that the bill drafted by Mintoff to remove the board of directors hardly received any opposition.
It was as if they were in acceptance of this travesty even if the law being passed ran counter to the constitution. As we both know the government in general was the net beneficiary of the Bank of Valletta so both sides profited from the theft.
What makes it worse is that the Nationalists had promised redress yet ignored the case once they had the power to address the situation.
As far as I know, no out of court settlement has even been seriously discussed although petitioned by shareholders for many years.
The only instance of a meeting being called to discuss it was about six years ago when the Chamber of Commerce asked the shareholders to pass a resolution to accept a sum of around 20 million euros.
In that meeting I urged the shareholders not to pass any resolution unless it was an offer that was made to them in writing, thereby making it an official offer. The resolution was passed that the offer would be considered if it was made to the shareholders by government in writing but not if it was made verbally through the Chamber of Commerce. From then on no more was heard of it.
Clearly all the government wanted was to contain the risk of a potential buyer to the amount agreed in the meeting only if and when the sale went through and the case was then decided in favor of the shareholders.
Re Malta today – my original letter was in reply to an article in the Times of Malta. I only copied it to Malta Today for journalistic cover never thinking that The Times would not publish it. Malta Today asked me if I objected to them publishing it and I did not.
The truth is that had it not been for Malta Today Lino Sipteri would not have been answered and his version would have remained undisputed.
We live in a country with limited free press and limited rule of law – this case exposes it and this is why it concerns us all.
I await in earnest The Times of Malta editorial board’s position on this very serious allegation.
They have to come up with a credible answer to disassociate themselves from the PL- MaltaToday tandem.
It seems that The Times of Malta is jockeying for position to either join this tandem or else, and that is even worse, to replace MaltaToday as one of the partners.
The Times is at present behaving, journalistically, like a reed swayed by the wind.
They seem to be terrified, at what was formerly Strickland House, of the certainty of an imminent PL government.
I wonder whether they are worried that their new state of the art premises might be ravished by an accidental fire.
Mandy, please don’t apologise – none needed.
I sent a message to timesofmalta.com inviting you to read my reply to what Lino Spiteri wrote, in Malta Today, as The Times have decided not to publish it. Funny but even that has not come up so I might be black-listed.
So if anyone would be so kind as to update that site with a link to the Malta Today piece – if I do so it will probably not appear – it would be helpful.
So much for free press. Thank you.