Robert Abela said he was in discussions with Binance to secure the company’s $39 million donation, when asked about the matter by Times of Malta on Wednesday morning.
“There are ongoing discussions at my level,” the Prime Minister said when asked whether he was pushing for the funds to remain in Malta.
“I am not there yet, but I will continue to do everything possible to bring those $39 million to our country to be used by our patients who need them,” Abela said.
Last week, Times of Malta revealed that the Malta Community Chest Fund had walked away from the donation, which had ballooned from an initial $200,000 in Binance’s cryptocurrency BNB back in 2018, to almost $39 million today.
MCCFF put the decision down to reputational concerns, with President Myriam Spiteri Debono describing it as a “bogus” donation.
Spiteri Debono’s views were echoed by finance minister Clyde Caruana on Tuesday, who told the audience at a Times of Malta pre-budget event that “you either donate to charity or you don’t. You don’t dance around it”.
However, Abela took a different stance last week, suggesting that the President had acted too hastily in walking away from the donation. Several fellow Labour MPs expressed similar views, as did opposition leader Alex Borg.
MCCFF’s decision came at the tail end of a lengthy legal dispute over how the funds were to be administered and disbursed.
The initial 2018 agreement stipulated that patients in need of funds would be required to open a crypto wallet in which to receive funds directly from Binance.
MCCFF, on the other hand, refused to hand over patient data, insisting that the donation should be sent to the foundation, for it then to be passed on to patients.
The dispute led MCCFF to initiate legal proceedings in 2021. The dispute was eventually dropped, with the initial agreement having recently been rescinded.
Nevertheless, Binance told Times of Malta that it “will ensure these funds are spent in Malta”.