According to a report from Maltese online news outlet, The Shift, Malta's financial services regulator MFSA has come under scrutiny for its spending on legal services, with the regulator paying €420 per hour to a US law firm, Sheehan Phinney, and engaging around 10 other firms at lower hourly rates ranging from €50 to €220. In addition, the regulator employs full-time lawyers, some earning salaries exceeding €120,000 per year.
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.