On 27 June the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution demanding that Malta show progress in fighting the culture of impunity here that allows politicians to get away with corruption and the masterminds behind Daphne’s assassination to get away with murder. They did not give Malta a deadline within which to [...]
What the university did yesterday should be met by outrage. Moviment Graffitti lampooned Ian Borg during Freshers’ Week, the yearly fair that is meant to help orientate new university students but which has become a fair for predatory recruiters and bankers to exploit just that disorientation. Graffitti put on a mask with Ian Borg’s face [...]
Were they consulting the deputy assistant latrine attendant of the anteroom to the staff kitchen? They sure were not consulting the Legal and Human Rights Committee of the Council, or the special rapporteur first appointed by that Committee and then confirmed by the Parliamentary Assembly. We know that because today Pieter Omtzigt reported to the [...]
We should have known better. All those lawyers and accountants who went into this should have known better. We all should have known that something based on a lie would get us into trouble. The sale of citizenship scheme was sold by Joseph Muscat as a magnet for talent. But even as he said that [...]
Antoine Zammit, for a couple of months the chief financial officer of the nationalist party, is an easy target. The home-made video of him explaining to his clients how to get their bootleg TV connection to access porn has split sides all afternoon yesterday. Before the day was out, he was made to resign. Don’t [...]
How many of these documentaries must we see before more of us realise that the passport sales scheme is going to sink this country? The editorial of The Sunday Times today calls for the scheme to be scrapped. Adrian Delia yesterday called for the scheme to be scrapped. Daphne Caruana Galizia called for the scheme [...]
From my article in The Sunday Times today: "Let me translate pizzo to ‘silent partner’, and then things will feel more familiar. "In hushed whispers, many will admit that there are sectors of our economy that are not open to all that may be interested. And for those that are allowed in, there’s an [...]
Sent in by someone known to me: On a popular current affairs discussion RAI programme, a prominent political person asked the rhetorical question: “Si deve chiedere se Malta veramente e un paese del UE o no.” The body language of both the interviewer and his guest to that question was in the negative. Because Malta [...]
This series started out as an investigation into the American University of Malta based on an interview with an ex- staff member who was part of the mass firings. [See When Is a University Not a University] However, it soon opened out on to the wider landscape of corruption saturating Malta. Part 1 of this [...]
Last Sunday Noel Grima contrasted the tenacity of the activists that campaign for truth and justice in the case of Daphne Caruana Galizia with the floppiness of the Nationalist Party. “I wondered,” Noel Grima wrote, “not just at the tenacity of this small group, without any visible means of support, and with no political background, [...]
The story of the fired Valletta parish priest and the church paraphernalia put up for sale in an antique shop opens questions quite beyond the obvious intrigue of a cleric fallen from grace. On one level silverware and art that did not belong to Deo Debono but were entrusted in his care found their way [...]
Here's the front door of the Chetcuti Cauchi Advocates office in Valletta before the rubbish collectors go by. It is a scene reminiscent of the headquarters of the SS just before the Russians rolled into Berlin. And of course more recently of the offices of Nexia BT and Mossack Fonseca (Malta) after Daphne Caruana Galizia [...]
Here's my article in this month's Money Magazine: Malta is not just a democracy. If it was, we’d take a vote on whether to abolish all taxation and it would probably pass. For a second there you might think paying no tax would be a good thing. Until you remember you would not be [...]
The government is trying to dispel the notion that Chetcuti Cauchi were a privileged crew. They have to do that or they’ll go down with the ship and the Chetcuti Cauchis are not worth that sort of trouble. They’re friends, but not that much. They are part of the brood we saw emerge from nowhere [...]
Giancarlo Siani was an Italian crime reporter from Naples, who was killed by the Camorra. On June 10, 1985, three months before he was killed, Siani had revealed that the arrest of Valentino Gionta had been decided by Lorenzo Nuvoletta, head of the Nuvoletta clan, a rival Camorra clan. Siani was preparing a dossier on [...]
Have you noticed how the license number for Chetcuti Cauchi law firm to sell Maltese passports is IIP001. Their license was suspended today after they were caught on camera gloating something to the effect of being able to get any crook a passport because they're buddies with Owen Bonnici, Julia Farrugia and Joseph Muscat. IIP001 [...]
In this article, I want to highlight the alarm rung by Moneyval in its Fifth Round Mutual Evaluation Report on Malta, which is based on the onsite visit between 5th and 16th November 2018. I must highlight that, contrary to a general perception that this is a Report made by the European Union, this Report [...]
In a brief statement the government announced that "the Malta Individual Investor Programme Agency has suspended the licences of Chetcuti Cauchi Advisors Ltd, holders of licences IIP 001 and IIP 124, until further notice." That's after Jean-Philippe Chetcuti, partner of the firm, was shown in a French TV channel M6 documentary last night boasting that [...]
Sent in by someone known to me: As expected, Joseph Muscat has failed to call an independent comprehensive inquiry on his government’s role in Daphne’s assassination within the three month deadline. That is the stark truth. Since the deadline has not been met, it is now up to the Council of Europe to match their [...]
This was the concluding section of a recent article by Saviour Balzan: The Caruana Galizia family has to be congratulated for having built a narrative that has played well in the media, most especially that in the foreign domain. They have now called for a meeting with the Prime Minister to complain over the composition [...]