FT:

The head of a Maltese private bank which had been under scrutiny by a murdered investigative journalist has been arrested in the US as part of a probe into a scheme to evade sanctions against Iran.

eyed Ali Sadr Hasheminejad, owner and chairman of Pilatus Bank, is charged with organising a scheme to illegally funnel more than $115m from Venezuela to Iranian-controlled companies via western banks.

According to the indictment, unsealed on Tuesday, Mr Sadr was instrumental in setting up a network of companies in Switzerland, Turkey and the British Virgin Islands to hide the involvement of Iran in the transactions carried out via US and Swiss lenders.

Pilatus Bank is not named in the Department of Justice indictment and no allegations have been made that it was involved in the scheme to evade sanctions. However, the bank was a frequent target of Daphne Caruana Galizia, the Maltese investigative reporter who was killed in a car bombing last year.

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