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 [...]
At the time of her assassination, Daphne Caruana Galizia had 48 libel suits mounted against her. 43 of these were civil, 5 criminal, and almost all were instigated by politicians or businessmen connected to the government. 19 alone were filed by the wealthy owner of the powerful db Group, Silvio Debono. This was done in [...]
Ninth district PN MP Marthese Portelli has just announced she is renouncing her parliamentary seat today opening up her seat for a casual election. Marthese Portelli has been a PN MP since 2013, elected twice in a row. In a Facebook post she thanked the Leaders of Opposition she worked under: Simon Busuttil and Adrian [...]
After filing a defamation lawsuit in Varna against me for a post in 2018 at the height of the Satabank crisis, its owner Christo Georgiev has now filed another SLAPP suit against The Time of Malta for a similar report. The Times of Malta announced it was served with legal papers from a Bulgarian district [...]
Repubblika reacted to the news that former Joseph Muscat spokesperson Ramona Attard has been appointed to sit on the Planning Appeals Board. The NGO said it is disgusted by the government’s decision to appoint a person whose credentials are limited to partisan loyalty. Ramona Attard’s entire career was spent working at the Labour Party and [...]
An association that represents the vast majority of film producers in Malta have kept up the pressure on Film Commissioner Johann Grech to step down. He was revealed in a The Shift News investigation two days ago to have advertised the services of 7 local film production companies leaving out the majority of the 22 [...]
A European Commission review of Malta’s progress on necessary reforms is expected to criticise Malta’s slow progress in fighting money laundering and fixing weaknesses in the governance of the country. “There remains room to mitigate the risks from money laundering,” a draft EU Commission six-monthly review is expected to remark. The Commission will acknowledge improvements [...]
A ruling handed down yesterday by the board conducting the inquiry into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia is more significant than the very little coverage it got in the press suggests. State’s Attorney Victoria Buttigieg asked the board to be allowed to participate in the inquiry in order to be able to cross-examine witnesses [...]
Updated at 11:50. See below for corrections. The union of students in the University of Malta medical degree program complained last week about pressure at Mater Dei for spots with consultants for their own members as they compete for space with Queen Mary University students undergoing the Barts medical program in Gozo. The tension arises [...]
Not everything that is illegal in other countries is illegal here. Or not everything is punishable in the same way. The bill proposed by the PN yesterday in a motion signed by Leader of Opposition Adrian Delia as well as Jason Azzopardi who first proposed the same type of bill in Parliament a few years [...]
Saviour Balzan wrote this last Sunday: “In my 32 years of journalism, being locked out, manhandled, thrown out, arrested and abused by government staffers – including former ministerial aides such as Manuel Delia – was part of the experience of being a working journalist. Being killed is not.” The context was an article I commented [...]