The findings of the European Banking Authority that ruled the FIAU broke the laws that give it its responsibility to prevent the use of the financial system to serve crime, independently confirm Jonathan Ferris’s case.
Jonathan Ferris worked at the FIAU for a few months before he was fired from his job. It was when he used his skills as an investigator acquired from years of service in the police force to realise fairly quickly the FIAU was a tool for crime not an agency that prevents it.
He lost his job which was really a secondment from his substantive position with the police. He lost that substantive position too. He is in court arguing this was illegal. The government’s lawyer, the attorney general, who is also the boss of the FIAU that fired him, argued in court how Jonathan Ferris’s case must be clipped to preserve what the attorney general understands to be public interest.
It’s in the public interest, they effectively argue, that what Jonathan Ferris knows is kept secret. Well the EBA has started revealing and confirming it now.
Jonathan Ferris applied for whistleblower status to be able to serve the nation with his testimony on what he knows. He was denied that status and had to argue why this was wrong in court. He’s still there fighting for the privilege of serving the country for the payment of intimidation, harassment and of course the loss of his job.
Living under constant threat given what happened to Daphne Caruana Galizia he was denied effective security. He lives having to watch his back and draw breath every time he turns on the ignition on his car.
A witness who trusted Malta’s law enforcement authorities, for which he worked for years, has been punished, severely and repeatedly. He has been threatened by government ministers and spokesmen who have publicly reminded him of the threat of prison should he speak of what he knows.
And it turns out, confirmed by the European Banking Agency, that he was right: the FIAU has allowed Malta’s financial system to serve crime.
Jonathan Ferris should be immediately compensated for the loss of his earnings, given appropriate protection, re-instated to the police force, and given immunity to testify in action against those responsible for this atrocious state of affairs.
Those responsible for this mess should be dismissed, investigated and where appropriate prosecuted.
We must insist on justice.
