Tag: Satabank

FinTelegram reported that the Irish Joseph Gavin resigned from his post as CEO of the Maltese Financial Services Authority (MFSA). Earlier this month, MFSA announced that Gavin would resign later this year. However, he resigned before the end of the Summer. The Irish lawyer was appointed to the financial regulator in July of 2021 on a package reportedly worth €160,000. The previous CEO, Joseph Cuschieri, has had to leave in disgrace, and the Acting CEO who succeeded him, Christopher P. Buttigieg, is facing lawsuits surrounding his conduct as an MFSA official. A mess!

Malta was grey listed by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in June 2021. This had been long coming. In a bid to not become grey listed and impress the FATF, Malta’s Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) was over-fining individuals and firms. The FATF did not fall for such games and grey-listed Malta. The FIAU continued issuing very high fines to targeted companies and individuals. Malta has now been removed from the FATF grey list after a year. Some companies and individuals who were hugely fined took legal action against the FIAU.

A fine imposed on the now-defunct Bulgarian-owned laundromat Satabank plc by Malta's Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) has been slashed from €327,500 to €68,000 after the bank appealed the penalty. The FIAU announced that a fine they had issued against the bank in October 2018 had been reduced by the Court of Appeal (Inferior Jurisdiction). As usual, details of the judgment have not been disclosed to the public. Satabank became notorious with a €3.7M AML/CFT penalty.