IT was one of the Scottish shell companies allegedly at the heart of one of Europe’s biggest money-laundering scandals.
Glasgow-registered Hilux Services has long been accused of playinga key role in a £2.2 billion scheme to wash dirty money out of oil-rich Azerbaijan.
It was one of a number of British ghost companies with accounts in the Estonian branch of Danske Bank named as part of the so-called
Azerbaijan Laundromat by theOrganised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project or OCCRP.
But now journalists in Italy have suggested Hilux, which has been dissolved, may have connections to another Azerbaijani scandal, in Malta.
The Milan business daily Il Sole 24 Ore and IPRI, the Investigative Reporting Project Italy, have said Hilux had an account in Pilatus Bank.
This Maltese bank was shut down over fraud charges last year after its biggest critic, journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb in 2017. Before her death Ms Caruana Galizia had accused the bank of processing corrupt payments for the family members of Azerbaijani leaders.
READ MORE: How the killing of a Maltese journalist shocked the world
Il Sole 24 Ore has already revealed prosecutors in Milan are looking into Danske Bank and the shell companies, many British or from British-controlled jurisdictions, which had its accounts.
Yesterday the newspaper said prosecutors had sent requests for mutual assistance to a number of countries, including the UK. Il Sole 24 Ore stressed Hilux was the subject of some of these requests.
The paper said Milanese investigators had not – as yet – had any formal contacts with Maltese authorities.
However, it added: “The inquiry has become intertwined with the investigation in to Pilatus Bank brought to light by Daphne Caruana Galizia before she was assassinated by a car bomb on October 16, 2017.
“Il Sole 24 Ore and IRPI have learned that Hilux Services had an account at Pilatus Bank. The beneficiary of that account is understood to have been the son of a Azerbaijan government figure.”
Hilux has never revealed a beneficial owner and was dissolved in October 2016, a year before Ms Caruana Galizia’s death.
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