A fine imposed on the collapsed Bulgarian-owned laundromat Satabank plc by Malta's Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) has been slashed from €327,500 to €68,000 after the bank appealed the penalty. The FIAU announced that a fine they had issued against the bank in October 2018 had been reduced by the Court of Appeal (Inferior Jurisdiction). As usual, details of the judgment have not been disclosed to the public. Satabank became notorious with a €3.7M AML/CFT penalty.
The main defendant, a 28-year-old, served five years in prison for aggravated commercial fraud. The sentences are not final. A 41-year-old co-defendant received two years' imprisonment, three months of which were unconditional. The two had been accused of deceiving 79 investors in Austria from 2018 to 2019.
