Las Vegas revelations won’t hurt Moneyval assessment – PS for Financial Services

Parliamentary secretary for Financial Services and Digital Economy Clayton Bartolo does not believe that the recent Las Vegas trip revelations will have any effect on the Moneyval evaluation.

"I am of the opinion that we have done all that we needed to. We worked hard over the past nine months and made the changes that were needed. We are confident that the Moneyval result will be good for the country."

MFSA CEO Joe Cuschieri and MFSA's General Counsel Edwina Licari have suspended themselves after it emerged that they had travelled to the US in May 2018, on invitation by businessman Yorgen Fenech. At the time, Cuschieri had just taken up his role at the MFSA after he left the Malta Gaming Authority, while Licari was still serving as legal advisor at the MGA. She joined the MFSA a few months later. Last week, Licari also resigned from the Board of the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU). A fourth person, Charlene Bianco Farrugia, who was former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri's personal assistant, also went on the trip.

Malta is currently being evaluated by Moneyval, and if the country fails the assessment, could be greylisted.

The parliamentary secretary was asked by The Malta Independent whether it would be better for the MFSA for Joe Cuschieri to resign, given the damage caused by the recent revelations.

"The MFSA is an independent authority, it has a board of governors looking into what needs to be done and I will not be the one to say what needs to be done. I have full confidence in the board of governors and know that they are taking decisions, seeing everything that needs to be done. I will leave it in their hands to proceed cautiously so that we can assure that our country continues fighting for its reputation."

Asked whether he believed it is acceptable for the head of the regulatory body to accept gifts from the business community, he said that what he thinks "is irrelevant in this case. The Authority is completely independent from government so that it can take decisions separately from what politicians believe. That is the fulcrum of independence. The board of governors is taking the decisions it needs to take at this time".