David Casa writes a guest piece on the EU Observer today on ‘how Malta targeted him for defending the rule of law’. He speaks of three stages of punishment. “The first stage is to use the threat of lawsuits. In the past few months, I have been publicly threatened by both the FIAU and by [...]

The fifth part of Godfrey Leone Ganado’s review of the conclusions of the Egrant inquiry: In my fourth article in this series, I referred to page 1422 (point 27) of the Inquiry Report regarding the conclusions made by Harbinson Forensics, the commissioned Forensic Accountants. Incidentally, this company was registered in the UK on 1 May [...]

The government changed employment laws recently. Apparently, it took dictation from the General Workers’ Union and published it without hearing the side of the story of the people who actually sign the cheques. It did so in Santa Marija week presumably because it expected lawyers for employers to be on leave, which they were, and [...]

Pilatus Bank’s owner Pilatus Holdings has today had its request to the court to block the regulatory intervention into its business denied. Pilatus Holdings lists as its directors Ali Sadr Hasheminejad and Pilatus CEO, and fellow Iranian, Hamidreza Ghanbari. In a recent statement, Ali Sadr said the Egrant inquiry vindicated him and showed any accusations of [...]

Raphael Vassallo flattered me with some attention on this morning’s Malta Today (scroll down for a copy). He had the decency of diverting his opprobrium from his masters’ preferred target: Daphne Caruana Galizia and her surviving family. A decency which Martin Scicluna did not have, writing in this morning’s Times of Malta. But really when [...]

The fourth part of Godfrey Leone Ganado’s review of the conclusions of the Egrant inquiry: In Part 2 of this series of articles, I referred to page 1407 of the inquiry report, which lists the countries from where the magistrate sought information to back up his report. As regards the Republic of Panama, it results [...]

John Vassallo completed his two-part The Sunday Times piece 'The Republic of Darkness' reviewing the Egrant inquiry. Read this: "So, with more or less the same doubtful evidence, when the judiciary in a decent country  is inclined to serve the interests of the tax-paying population rather than the fears of the innominato and his advisers, [...]

A recording of a concert given by the Re:Orchestra Quartet of Rotterdam in memory of Daphne Caruana Galizia and Jan Kuciak is available on CD. The concert was sponsored by John Vassallo and Marianne Noll and was held last May at Lapsi church in San Ġiljan. CDs are available at Agenda bookstores. Proceeds go towards [...]

Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported this week on gaming companies exploiting chronic regulatory weaknesses in law enforcement in Malta for illegal gaming activities. The story focuses on Loewen Play that runs more than 400 gambling halls in Germany in a state-approved activity. The newspaper, however, reports that Loewen Play uses Malta to dodge German regulators and illegally [...]

Accountants are often private people. They do their work diligently and quietly and often avoid drawing attention to themselves.  Vincent Camilleri, the accountant at Portmann Capital Management Ltd, will probably be surprised to find even his existence discussed in a political blog. Not to mention seeing his CV assessed by someone who, like me, does [...]

A lot has been made about lack of evidence of communication between Nexia BT and Mossack Fonseca in Panama about the ownership of Egrant. A report on investigations into Mossack Fonseca in Nevada, the United States, shows that the firm issued instructions to its Panama central computing system and the office of its Nevada subsidiary [...]

It is one thing for the Finance Minister to adopt the role of a promoter of Malta’s interests and seek to paint a pretty picture of things. It is altogether another to behave like a second-hand car salesman and strong arm the customer into disbelieving their very eyes. Edward Scicluna’s letter to the Financial Times [...]

This is the speech delivered by Ranier Fsadni at Thursday's Valletta vigil. Jien aċċettajt li niġi nkellimkom illum għaliex xbajt nisma’ lil min qatt ma rifes hawn jispjega għala jien u intom niġu ninġabru hawnhekk. Xbajt nisma’ li jien iżolat. Xbajt nisma’ li jien indannat, li ma niflaħx nara lil pajjiżi jgawdi l-aqwa żmien, li [...]

My article in today's The Sunday Times is an adaptation of my speech at Thursday's vigil in Valletta. Here's the original speech in Maltese if you prefer. Nixtieq nirringrazzja lil Daphne Caruana Galizia. Qatt daqs illum ma kien hemm tant bżonn li t-tislima tagħna għall-memorja ta’ Daphne Caruana Galizia ssir f’forma ta’ protesta.  Meta tlett [...]

Third part of Godfrey Leone Ganado’s review of the conclusions of the Egrant inquiry: In this third Article, I will provide further background from the Panama Papers, the legislation governing companies in Panama and how Egrant Inc fits into this scenario. On page 1409 of the report, point ‘f’ lists Panama Lawyer Fernando Berguido who [...]

Matthew Caruana Galizia is yet another witness in the Egrant inquiry who says he has been warned by Magistrate Aaron Bugeja of consequences if evidence in his possession was handed over to the inquiry. “When I testified before Magistrate Aaron Bugeja more than a year ago, he warned me he could not protect me if [...]

You're not expected to memorise this. There's no test at the end of the week. But you should know that Jacqueline Alexander, the witness who testified she never signed the declarations of trust of Egrant identifying Michelle Muscat as its owner served as director for the list of companies appearing here. For each of these [...]

Die Welt, one of Germany’s top newspapers, has published a detailed story on the case of Mike Mansholt, a young German man whose body was found at the foot of Dingli cliffs next to his bike but missing his shoes and his camera. He had no fractures or any bodily evidence of a fall and [...]

Ali Sadr Hasheminejad’s sister, Negarin Sadr, closed down her clothes shop in San Francisco four weeks ago. A trusted source of this website yesterday visited the address formerly occupied by Negarin London after its Google page marked it as permanently closed. Witnesses from the neighbourhood on Fillmore Street, San Francisco, told this website Negarin London [...]

Sent in by Karen Calleja who was at yesterday's vigil: Many things have happened in the last 10 months, but there hasn't been a day when Daphne Caruana Galizia was not thought of, mentioned or remembered. I still visit her Running Commentary, to refresh my memory and to feel her presence. And I always end [...]