The United States Attorney prosecuting Ali Sadr for multiple counts of bank fraud and sanctions busting has told the US Federal Court that any equity Ali Sadr still holds in Pilatus Bank is forfeitable because the bank was set up on the back of proceeds of crime. This is the clearest statement yet from a [...]

I doubt very much this will stop the ‘where’s the laptop’ trolling but at least it should frustrate the real motive behind it. Trolls repeat a mantra because mantras are easy to remember. They can be used to shout down any argument and prevent any tempting distraction from the obsessive objective of silencing rationality and [...]

At the inaugural European Leadership Awards ceremony in Brussels tonight, Euronews and the European Business Society presented a special Contribution to Society award to the family of Daphne Caruana Galizia. The award commemorates her work in the area of investigative journalism. The award was received by Matthew and Andrew Caruana Galizia from European Parliament President Antonio Tajani. [...]

Karol Aquilina filed a formal objection at the planning authority against the giant Silvio Debono project in place of the old ITS building overlooking St George’s Bay. Just filed formal objection with @pa_malta to the proposed @dbseabank project on ITS site in St Julian's, a project designed to line the pockets of greedy developers at [...]

Cherry AB has confirmed that its CEO Anders Holmgren is being investigated by the Swedish Economic Crime Authority on suspicion of insider trading. The company’s Stockholm headquarters were searched on Tuesday morning in relation to the probe, with Holmgren arrested. Cherry AB and its subsidiaries XCaliber and Comeon have sizeable operational bases in Malta. Industry [...]

John Dalli, the éminence grise behind most of the dark initiatives of Joseph Muscat’s government, has given a speech in India on how blockchain will allow people to flow money without the inconvenience of government scrutiny. He was speaking at a New Delhi conference organised by blockchain company QuickX Protocol that has appointed John Dalli [...]

Michael Vella is a frequent contributor to the comments boards of this website. He sent the below comment as a contribution to the discussion on the 'untimely interruption' of the work the FBI did on identifying the movements of devices used by the alleged assassins hired to kill Daphne Caruana Galizia. Their review of their [...]

Giuseppe Conte, nominated for the post of Prime Minister of Italy, by leaders of the populist Cinque Stelle and Lega parties, is a law professor whose resumé includes teaching a summer class at the University of Malta called “European Contract and Banking Law”. A New York Times article observed that that specific element of his [...]

The presentation of evidence against the three alleged hired assassins who killed Daphne Caruana Galizia, risks becoming a courtroom drama in the let’s-watch-this-because-it’s-fun sort of way. In all honesty the maddening delaying tactics of the defence team entertain no one but we would all do better to be circumspect about commenting on creative lawyerly use [...]

One of the fascinating controversies that this blog had on its discussion boards was whether it is appropriate to make comparisons between the current state of play in Malta and the rise of fascist politics in Europe less than a century ago. I came across a Reddit discussion just this morning that was debating my [...]

Before the last election You Tube channel Xini Productions released a number of videos analysing Joseph Muscat's body language, demonstrating the tells in his behaviour. I have come across this video released a few weeks ago analysing John Sweeney's BBC Newsnight interview with Joseph Muscat from some time ago known to posterity as 'the artful dodger [...]

If you want to stay informed of Civil Society activities and initiatives, you need to give them your consent to send notifications to your Whatsapp account. It's the law. Send a Whatsapp message to 99660847. If you do this before Friday 25th, your message will be your consent for Civil Society to keep your number [...]

You know the type. Scribbled in caps, no signature, no return address. This one I wanted to share with you. Whoever you are, you made my day, mate. Thanks for that.

Henley & Partners’ grip on Malta continues to tighten as they go further up the value chain combining real estate mediation with the offer of Maltese citizenship. The group has set up a real estate branch under the brand Casamont and will compete with other real estate agents for margins on the sale of property [...]

In a 34 word statement the government denied having anything to do with the DDOS attack that brought down this website twice in the last 5 days. That’s it? No reassurances that the police will investigate this “alleged” attack and appropriate action will be taken once the facts are determined? No polite inanities about commitment [...]

Saviour Balzan could have argued in his editorial about Maria Efimova’s tweet that her English language skills were insufficiently nuanced when she said you can only understand the suffering of the Caruana Galizias if a relative as close to you as Daphne was to them is torn to bits in a bomb. He presented her [...]

A Court ruled today that Konrad Mizzi, Keith Schembri, Brian Tonna and Karl Cini have a case to answer after The Daphne Project released more information on their connections to 17 Black. However the decision sent the evidence to be added to an earlier order by another court for the police to investigate the Panama [...]

A British Parliamentary committee is warning the UK government is turning a blind eye to Russian dirty money flowing through the City’s financial structures serving the foreign policy aspirations of the Putin government. Read more about that report here, including the response of the UK government that seeks to assure Parliamentarians that the government is [...]

A Civil Court judge today turned down an application filed by lawyers for Alfred Degiorgio iċ-Ċiniż, one of the alleged hired assassins accused of killing Daphne Caruana Galizia, to stop FBI witnesses from testifying against them at least until the Court takes a final decision on preventing them from doing so altogether. In a lengthy [...]

David Lindsey’s story yesterday on The Malta Independent on Sunday throws a little more light on the darkness of the exit of Gasol from the Electrogas consortium. Jacob Borg’s story today on The Times of Malta provides some more information about the agency of Konrad Mizzi as some form of mediator between any regulator with [...]