Tag: Daphne Caruana Galizia

The former CEO of the Maltese financial regulator MFSA, Joseph Cuschieri, was a disgrace to the authority. The unjust dismissal of former MFSA COO Reuben Fenech by then-CEO Joseph Cuschieri has led to a damage payment of almost €414,000. Under the leadership of Cuschieri and his team, the Maltese financial regulator has lost its reputation and has become a symbol of the failure of financial market supervision.

Malta is different. There, it's really the good networks and friends that count first and foremost. Sincerity or reputation is less important. After a devastating internal investigation, Joseph Cuschieri was forced to resign as CEO of the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) in 2020. Cuschieri used to be a good friend of the arrested Maltese entrepreneur Yorgen Fenech. However, he has been given a new government appointment, the Maltese online media The Shift reports.

Unsurprisingly, the former CEO of the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA), Joseph Cuschieri, violated the regulators' ethics. An internal ethics probe into the regulator's former CEO has determined that he infringed the MFSA's and the European Central Bank's guidelines by going on a 2020 trip to Las Vegas with businessman Yorgen Fenech, who footed the bills for their flights and accommodation.

The Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) just keeps making headlines for the wrong reasons. Shocking court testimony by an MFSA official revealed that two MFSA officials hid documents from the magisterial inquiry into the operations of Pilatus Bank in a safe on the Authority’s premises that was only accessible by two people who are no longer at the Authority. This testimony was revealed on Maltese television by a local NGO President.

The regulatory environment in Malta is different. Very different, indeed. The Maltese online platform Shift revealed that Malta Financial Services Authority (MFS) entered into a questionable arrangement to pay its retired former CEO Joseph Gavin some €65,000 for him to “give a handover” to the new acting CEO, a senior MFSA executive. Gavin stepped down last summer after being absent from work for over a month but was still paid €11,000 per month.

A new study calls Malta a money laundering hub in connection with gambling activities. Nothing new here! In May 2017, whistleblower Valery Atanasov, a former MGA employee, exposed email exchanges that demonstrated that the regulator had broken its own rules between 2012 and 2014 and created "conditions that allow suspicious financial operations, money laundering, and other criminal practices.” Joseph Cuschieri, the then-CEO, was awarded the post of CEO of the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA).

Last week, two brothers, George Degiorgio, 59, and Alfred Degiorgio, 57, charged with the car-bomb assassination of the Maltese journalist and blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia in October 2017 have been sentenced to a 40-year prison term. They pleaded guilty to her murder on the first day of their trial. Caruana Galizia, the "one-woman Wikileaks" had investigated political corruption in Malta and abroad. She was known as a harsh critic of the Maltese government.

Questions sent to the acting CEO of the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA), Michelle Mizzi Buontempo, have remained unanswered. Calamatta Cuschieri Investments Services Limited, a MFSA-licensed firm, has been named by a convicted criminal under oath in court, for dishing him out some €500,000 in cash. She was asked whether the MFSA considers such dodgy transactions as legal and if an investigation into Calamatta Cuschieri’s operations is being carried out.

Bank of Valletta (BOV) is considered Malta’s largest bank. In October 2020, Gordon Cordina was appointed as Chairman of the bank. Presently, 25% of the Bank's equity is held by the Government of Malta, UniCredit S.p.A. holds 10.20%, and the remaining 64.80% is in the hands of the general public. Fintelegram can reveal and publish proof that the BOV Chairman is a co-owner of Malta-registered E-Cubed Consultants Limited. He owns 50% of this company. E-Cubed Consultants has been receiving around €3,500 per month from the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) for so-called consultancy services.

Joseph Cuschieri was the CEO of the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) when he was appointed as CEO of the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) in 2018. Cuschieri decided to be accompanied by his long-term friend Edwina Licari, who joined him from MGA. During their term at MFSA, they traveled on 38 “business” trips together and spent €0.5 million from taxpayers’ monies. During a 2017 trip to Johannesburg, South Africa, they stayed at the luxurious Emperors Palace.

Well, that's a bit strange! But then, it's Malta. MFSA's Irish CEO Joseph Gavin will be retiring early and stepping down from his role later this year following a recent absence for medical reasons., MFSA informed in a one-sentence notice. The Irish lawyer was appointed to the financial regulator in July of 2021 on a package reportedly worth €160,000. Gavin previously served as general counsel within the Central Bank of Ireland between 2009 and 2015.

The Maltese regualator MGA has been hitting the headlines for the wrong reasons during the past years. Following resignations, including that of Heathcliff Farrugia and Anton Axiaq, both being prosecuted for alleged serious crimes, the Chief Internal Auditor of MGA, James Grech resigned for unknown reasons. The regulator did not make any announcement of the departure. James Grech was enrolled within MGA during the days when disgraced Joseph Cuschieri was at the helm of the Authority.