Malta had concerns about bank with Azeri clients, kept it open

FILE PHOTO: Whitehall Mansions, within which the offices of Pilatus Bank are situated, is seen in Ta' Xbiex, Malta, October 28, 2017. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi/File Photo

VALLETTA, Malta (Reuters) - Last April, a Maltese journalist published stories saying a private bank on her island was serving high-ranking customers in Azerbaijan, and alleging it was processing corrupt payments. Six months later the journalist, Daphne Caruana Galizia, was murdered.

Many of her claims, including the one about corrupt payments, remain unproven. There is also nothing to link her death to the reports she wrote about the bank or its staff. But one of her key findings has held up: The bank, called Pilatus Bank, did depend for much of its business on the Azeri elite.