A report published in the Times of Malta claimed that the former chief executive of Malta Gaming Authority, Heathcliff Farrugia, tried to fix some results of the investigation conducted into casinos by Yorgen Fenech. Fenech has recently been arrested for a murder of an individual named Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Accusation of Conspiracy
According to a recent report released in Time of Malta, the former CEO of MGA has conspired with the former CEO of Tumas Gaming and another individual, Yorgen Fenech, who is already a murder suspect. The report alleged that the conspiracy was planned to avoid the results and consequences of those results.
In 2018, the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) and the MGA conducted an investigation jointly into money-laundering compliance at multiple Tumas Gaming casinos. The investigation revealed several cases and scenarios where money-laundering laws got severely breached. Like the casino showed total inability to recognize its customers’ source of wealth and source.
This finding also unearthed the process the reporting officer of money-laundering controls at Tumas Gaming presented an enforced understanding of the laws regarding anti-money laundering. Moreover, the inspection discovered that the transaction monitoring system in the casinos was poor and lacked continuous monitoring facilities.
The report, published by the Times of Malta, claimed that Fenech and Farrugia were in direct communication after the breach notice of FIAU. Farrugia left the role of CEO last October and told Fenech that the inspection wasn’t anything personal and that he had been biding for extra time.
The Times of Malta’s report also accused Farrugia of trying to receive a warning in place of a fine release so that it couldn’t be public. At the end of the inspection, a fine amounted to more than €10,000 had been revealed to the public. But the threshold has ever been increasing.
Malta is now currently undergoing the risk of being enlisted in the Financial Action Task Force’s list of unreliable countries. The list is also called “the grey list”, and it indicates the countries which are not advisable to transact any money.
