Moneyval, the international anti-money laundering body has slammed Malta for failing to tackle financial crimes.

In a recent report, Moneyval said that there were still unacceptable risks around banking and gambling, despite efforts to clean things up following the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was investigating corruption, on 16^th October 2017.

According to the organisation, the Malta police force have not been effectively tracing criminal money, especially surrounding online gambling.

Despite this, Maltese politicians have said they are satisfied with the progress made, and are implementing a plan to carry out Moneyval’s recommendations – of which there are fifty-eight.

Moneyval attributes the lack of progress to limited human and financial resources, and has said they do not believe the Maltese police can effectively investigate and prosecute cases involving financial bribery and corruption.

About Moneyval?

The Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism – MONEYVAL is a permanent monitoring body of the Council of Europe entrusted with the task of assessing compliance with the principal international standards to counter money laundering and the financing of terrorism and the effectiveness of their implementation, as well as with the task of making recommendations to national authorities in respect of necessary improvements to their systems.

AYO.NEWS says:

While it is absolutely true that Malta has experienced several high-profile corruption and money laundering scandals, not least the recent case of SKS365 allegedly failing to declare around €4 billion in taxable income between 2015 and 2016 (read more), we can also attest to the fact that the actions already taken have made it virtually impossible for legitimate start-ups to access even the most essential banking services in the country.

In fact, since the shutting down of Satabank almost a year ago, companies in the iGaming sector in Malta (and even those merely dealing with iGaming businesses as clients), have been effectively completely shut out of the Maltese financial system. Obviously this is a big headache for existing companies, but it is literally lethal for start-ups.

As someone writing in local media put it a few days ago “Malta is now only good for business if you sell vegetables.”

The Maltese government urgently needs to take its head out of the sand and realise that unless banking services are made available to legitimate businesses immediately, those businesses will start relocating to other jurisdictions, no matter how favourable tax rates and other perks are.

AYO.NEWS says features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited.