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Slain Maltese Reporter's Family Turns to Latvia for Help

Slain Maltese Journalist’s Family Names Latvia Laundering Gang

(Bloomberg) --

The family of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was killed by a car bomb in 2017, provided Latvia with details of people allegedly involved in a money-laundering network that was linked to her death.

The 31-page report was given to the Baltic nation’s Financial Intelligence Unit on May 30 and contains the names of gang members whom Galizia “investigated and whom we believe are connected to her subsequent murder,” her family said in an emailed statement.

Slain Maltese Reporter's Family Turns to Latvia for Help

Malta’s Pilatus Bank and Latvia’s ABLV Bank provided services to a network of money launderers that served people in Malta and Azerbaijan with ties to politicians or officials from government-owned companies, the family said.

The European Central Bank revoked Pilatus’s license in November after its boss was arrested by U.S. law enforcement. ABLV lost its license last July after being accused of money laundering by the U.S. Treasury. An ABLV spokesman didn’t respond to a request for comment, as did the FIU.

“Europe is experiencing a crime and corruption emergency and its only a matter of time before someone else is killed,” the family said in the statement, citing the unresolved murders of Galizia and Latvian liquidator Martins Bunkus. Last year, he was killed by machine gun fire through the windshield of his Range Rover in Riga.

To contact the reporter on this story: Aaron Eglitis in Riga at aeglitis@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrea Dudik at adudik@bloomberg.net, Andrew Langley

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