It was one of those ironies of history that it had to be the Socialists in the European Parliament to insist Malta is listed as a tax haven in the European Parliament’s resolution on the subject with all the consequences that follow from that. It must have felt sweet for Nationalist MEPs to be vindicated, [...]
Pilatus Bank whistle-blower Maria Efimova met PANA and LIBE committee members of the European Parliament by video conference today. She was providing information as part of the European Parliament's investigation into rule of law in Malta. Speaking exclusively to manueldelia.com, Maria Efimova explained she had passed documentation in her possession to committee members in advance [...]
Maria Efimova, who blew the whistle on alleged corruption and money laundering at Pilatus Bank where she worked, has asked manueldelia.com to publish her letter to Claude-Anne Sant Fournier, her former colleague at the bank. Claude-Anne Sant Fournier is Head of Legal and Compliance at Pilatus Bank. The Bank's website says she leads Pilatus Bank’s [...]
Joseph Muscat has finally articulated it. Labour is the ‘law and order’ party of Malta. No one wants chaos and anarchy. But the switch from ‘business as usual’ to ‘ we need to unleash the army’ is quite a change. The radical re-orientation is likely a response to a shift in public mood which the [...]
Documenting Ghana is an interesting blog written by a Maltese woman, Christine Xuereb Seidu, who migrated to Ghana with her husband and their daughter to escape the racism and ethical ambiguities in Malta and start a new life on the Gold Coast. They have been there since August and have been building a new life [...]
From my article in The Sunday Times today: "The death of the judges killed in Sicily in the early 1990s was the catalyst for the transformation of a society and a country that refused to face the realities of its sins. Inspired by their sacrifice, hundreds and thousands of citizens and public servants stepped up [...]
The government today accused the Caruana Galizia family of seeking to undermine the authority of the state by seeking advice from a foreign lawyer about how respectful Malta was being of their fundamental rights. The official statement said: "This attempt to write a completely one sided judgment in the court case before this is even [...]
Together with Fr Joe Borg, earlier today I interviewed Antonio di Pietro on an RTK broadcast. He reacts to the arraignment of three people accused of homicide in the case of the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Here's a recording of the interview from this morning. The interview is in Italian with a summary explanation [...]
The government have well and truly lost it. Do please first read their official DOI statement in response to the legal advice from a UK Human Rights law firm published yesterday by the Caruana Galizia family. In 1987, when democracy started being restored the Maltese parliament extended the right of petition for every person wishing [...]
The Malta Independent appears to have given in to pressure from Pilatus Bank and changed history by purging a detailed interview it had conducted with Maria Efimova, the bank's former employee who blew the whistle on corrupt transactions allegedly handled by the bank. The interview was announced in an online story on The Malta Independent's [...]
Here's the Corvette we read about in the Italian press belonging to officially unemployed George de Giorgio. iċ-Ċiniż, the man believed to have asked his 'baby' to open him a bottle of wine to celebrate another job well done. The photos of the car feature in de Giorgio's minor children's Facebook page among holiday snaps [...]
Read the report on The Shift here. She will be speaking to the PANA Committee of the European Parliament by video conference on Monday night. This is what parliamentarians looking for the truth do. They listen to whistle-blowers, protect them and use the information they get from them to chase the real culprits. We, on [...]
A few hours after Daphne Caruana Galizia died, her husband, her sister and her eldest son were dragged to court along with suspects of the murder and made to wait for hours in a dark and cold court lobby preventing them from even the basic humanity of finding comfort in each other and the rest [...]
Please visit the website of Transparency International Russia. I worked on the investigation with Russian colleagues Lily Dobrovolskaya, Yulya Pavlovskaya, Ilya Shumanov. The investigation finds that: The listed cases of abuse in the purchase of Maltese passports clearly demonstrate the vulnerability of the Maltese "economic citizenship" program. By its nature, the program is a high-risk tool: [...]
Manuel Mallia has just been reconfirmed Chairman of the Occupational Health and Safety Authority. He was appointed there last July having missed a post in Cabinet because he only managed to make it to Parliament after a by election. He replaced Deo Debattista who was promoted from the backbench. It's this government's policy to recruit [...]
See Matthew's post from last night. There's more to this than il-Koħħu, il-Fulu and iċ-Ċiniż. Someone out there knows more.
The last time I called out Tony Zarb the Prime Minister condemned me. So I suppose I have a guess what I'm going in for. Tony Zarb posted on Facebook the following over the last few hours: The first one translates "The Dark Forces: The first buzz word was 'political killing'. Now the new buzz [...]
This detailed article in the Nordwest Zeitung tells the story of a father unable to get answers from the Maltese authorities after his teenage son was found dead here in mysterious circumstances. The police are uncooperative and unwilling to investigate more than they feel they must. The attorney general insists on secrecy. The medical examiner [...]
While collecting in abstentia the praise for her philanthropy in Malta, she collected in praesentia a similar recognition from an NGO in the Bahamas. They heard about the good work of the Marigold Foundation the other end of the world. And Michelle Muscat flew there to get her well deserved thanks. The government of Malta [...]
Sources that appear to be eminently well informed are briefing Italian journalists well ahead of Maltese journalists who usually cover crime stories. That suggests the information is coming from political sources who are briefed by the police. But if the information is correct, and there's no reason to think it isn't, it does not really [...]