There is no end to how low the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) can go. Shocking court testimony by an MFSA official claimed that two former officials hid documents from the magisterial inquiry into the operations of Pilatus Bank. According to Anthony Sacco, these documents were hidden in a safe on the Authority’s premises that were only accessible by two MFSA officials. However, new information received by the Maltese NGO Repubblika shows that these officials had already left the MFSA and, as such, could not have had anything to do with concealing the documents from the inquiring magistrate.
The new information clearly leads to the possibility of a cover-up by the top brass at MFSA. No one from MFSA has yet denied this. The MFSA’s CEO, Joseph Gavin, resigned a few months ago but is still being paid some Eur 11,000 per month.
The Executive Committee of MFSA is headed by Michelle Mizzi Buontempo, and includes Christopher P. Buttigieg and Edwina Licari. These officials do not declare their conflicts of interest to the public. Edwina Licari, the friend and travel companion of disgraced Joseph Cuschieri, was made to resign in disgrace from the FIAU board of governors following news that she traveled to Las Vegas with Yorgen Fenech, the alleged mastermind behind the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Joseph Cuschieri is trying to rebrand himself as a founder of CP Advisory.
Karol Gabarretta and Ray Vella were put in a bad light due to the testimony by MFSA’s Anthony Sacco. Both Gabarretta and Vella are not to blame.
