FATF grey listing: Buck stops with the PM

On Friday, the reasons for Malta’s grey listing by the Financial Action Task Force became clearer. The global anti-money laundering watchdog said that Malta made good progress in this field but, at the end of the day, it was not enough. Malta’s efforts were too little and too late.

The FATF said there are still serious deficiencies left in the field of enforcement and prosecution of money laundering crimes. It also told the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit that it must do more to support the police in its financial crime investigations. More importantly, it said that Malta still leaves much to be desired when it comes to the keeping up-to-date information on the ultimate beneficial owners of certain companies, pointing specifically at shell companies.

This was not surprising at all, considering that, six years after the Panama Papers scandal we still have no idea who the ultimate beneficial owner of Egrant is.

The Labour administration had been warned for years that the fallout from the Panama Papers would be felt in the years to follow, and we are now reaping what we sowed.

It is beyond comprehension how, to this day, no serious action has been taken against individuals and entities who were involved in some of the biggest scandals Malta has ever seen. Scandals which have shamed us the world over, and which continue to haunt us to this every day.

Yes, the local financial watchdogs have beefed up their resources. Yes, they have greatly increased the number of inspections carried out. Yes, the police force has since launched its dedicated anti-financial crimes unit and, yes, the number of prosecutions over financial crimes, including money laundering, have increased.

But the numbers are still way too low to convince the international institutions that we are taking this seriously.

And such an argument is very difficult to make when considering that the biggest scandals have not yet been investigated.

The Egrant saga has only been limited to a magisterial inquiry that was very limited in scope. The multi-million-euro inquiry only sought to find out whether Egrant was owned by Joseph and Michelle Muscat (and found no proof of the claim), but it did not actually try to identify who the actual owner is.

Keith Schembri is being prosecuted on charges of corruption and graft over the purchase of the Times of Malta printing press, but not much seems to have been done on his Panamanian company and New Zealand trust, despite suggestions, including by our own FIAU, that these were set up for nefarious purposes.

The same goes for his buddy Konrad Mizzi, who has also been implicated in possible corruption. He remains a Member of Parliament.

The police have cracked down on an alleged oil-smuggling ring which seems to be connected to money laundering via several restaurants, but no major investigation has been launched into mega scandals like those involving the hospitals privatisation deal and the Electrogas contract, both of which seem to be linked to a web of corruption involving shell companies that were set up specifically to receive kickbacks.

There are many, many more cases of corruption that have plagued the Labour administration which remain untouched to this very day.

Despite all the warnings that ignoring these scandals, that dragging Malta’s name deeper into the mud would lead to international sanctions, many Labour politicians chose to play dumb and always pointed to the fact that the PL remains on an electoral winning streak. It’s as if winning an election absolves a political party of all its sins.

That excuse cannot be used anymore. We have now landed ourselves in a big mess, the effects of which cannot even be quantified yet, and a change of direction is needed, even if unpopular choices will have to be made.

The government must realise that this is not about winning elections anymore, but about doing what’s good for the entire nation, its businesses, and its families.

Our bad reputation has not really affected our economy so far. Despite the scandals, despite the fact that Malta has been in the international news for all the wrong reasons for a good seven or eight years, we had not felt any tangible effects and our economy was still thriving, at least until Covid-19 hit.

But the situation has changed now, and even the government has admitted that we will be feeling the effects of this grey listing.

The fact that it has now committed to addressing the FATF concerns in as short a time as possible shows that the bigwigs at Castille have finally woken up to smell the coffee.

There is no harsher wakeup call than this week’s verdict.

Robert Abela has in the past shown that he can take hard decisions when he wants to. Over the coming weeks and months, he must make many more of those.

It is a tough job, an unenviable one but, ultimately, the buck stops with him.