By Joseph Farrugia

Facebook is lit up this morning with furious anger at yesterday’s killing of a woman whose house collapsed over her head while a construction development next door dug too deep too close. There’s anger at the fact that a pattern has been emerging and these incidents are occurring with increasing frequency and increasing severity. There [...]

In a couple of hours, the money laundering and Iran sanctions-busting trial of Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad starts in the Southern Distict of New York federal courtroom of southern Manhattan. Ali Sadr’s lawyers have filed reams of preliminary objections to proceedings over the last several months right up to yesterday the eve of the commencement [...]

Photo: Times of Malta While the search goes on for a woman likely to be under the rubble of a collapsed building, it is wise to exercise restraint on commentary. There will be time for comments. Except perhaps one that need not wait. This building did not collapse because of some natural disaster [...]

The following is an analysis of the accounts filed by Steward Health Group at the Malta Registry of Companies: Corporate Structure Vitals Global Healthcare was registered on 13 May 2015, with a share capital of 1,200 shares of Euro 1 each, held by Bluestone Investments Ltd, registered on 9 December 2014. The directors were Sri [...]

Private bank and wealth manager Coutts has informed its Malta-based customers who do not pay tax in the UK that they must close their accounts with the bank by the end of April. In a letter to customers the bank complained of “an increasingly complex regulatory environment (that) makes it difficult for us to continue [...]

A survey published yesterday by it-Torċa shows that almost half of respondents who voted PN in June 2017 do not trust Adrian Delia. Of that half, a fifth refuse to give an answer, about the same number prefer the Labour leader over the leader of the party they voted for last and the rest do [...]

Johann Grech was caught last week promoting 7 local producers and leaving out another 14 that used to be on the Film Commission’s list until 2 years ago. Johann Grech is a Labour Party crony who has worked in the past on Labour Party campaigns and on Joseph Muscat’s staff. He moved to the film [...]

  It looks like the main witness in the trial against the person accused of being the mastermind in the assassination of a journalist is economical with the truth. Considering that saying the full truth is a pre-condition for the qualified pardon he has been given he is sure playing with fire there. Although he [...]

The crisis is virtually open. There is no need to declare it formally. There are facts that prove it. Already during past weeks, political analysts, party activists, newspaper commentators and party parliamentary deputies have aired their concerns that the party reform programme, initiated by the PN leader himself, was being postponed if not also sabotaged. [...]

An investigation by Swiss investigative group Public Eye and anti-corruption NGO Trial International found that a high-profile Swiss oil trading company used Malta to store and recycle oil stolen from Libya and smuggled by Maltese master-smugglers Darren and Gordon Debono. The investigation uncovered business transactions in 2014 and 2015 between the Swiss trader Kolmar Group [...]

From my article in the Sunday Times of Malta today: "Though most of the pain was suffered by expats or non-residents, some Maltese businesses who banked at Satabank folded. The dreams of start-ups were shattered. "Georgiev, on the other hand, went back home to Bulgaria continuing serenely as though the day his bank was shut [...]