HSBC Bank’s ‘information report’ about Adrian Hillman was issued by central office

The HSBC ‘information report’ on Adrian Hillman – who at the time was managing director of Malta’s biggest newspaper publishing group and printing press – and which Nexia BT used to restructure his secret company in the British Virgin Islands, was issued just a month after the purported HSBC information reports for the Prime Minister’s chief of staff and his managing director, Malcolm Scerri.

But it was issued through the bank’s central office in Hal Qormi, in accordance with the bank’s actual policy. The information reports for Keith Schembri and Malcolm Scerri, who are both politically exposed persons under the law – the one works for the Prime Minister, and the other runs his business – are purportedly issued by HSBC’s Attard branch. They are dated 13 May 2013, but that branch closed in February 2012. And in May 2013, the bank’s policy was already to issue information reports from central office and not through branches.