Malta can’t stop hurting its own financial services industry. Minister Clyde Caruana has appointed Alfred Mifsud as the Arbiter for financial services. Mifsud, who headed the TV station of the Labour Party, which is currently in Government, was found guilty in 66 cases by the previous financial services Arbiter. Labour stalwart Alfred Mifsud owned Crystal Finance Investments, which mis-sold thousands of products to its victims.
The company was eventually acquired by Calamatta Cushcieri, who were also found guilty of negligence and were ordered to refund a client for the hefty losses.
The Maltese FIAU has failed to take any action against Calamatta Cuschieri and Crystal Finance Investments. Both are considered as untouchables within the Maltese financial services industry.
Mifsud will now be tasked with handing down judgments on financial services operators when he has quite possibly been found guilty of the very same breaches. Now, Alfred Mifsud will be deciding cases launched against his former partner, Calamatta Cuschieri, in a clear conflict of interest.
Alfred Mifsud’s company was also lambasted by the Courts, with a Judge saying that he could “not understand how the client, an old woman who can’t even read and write, could ever understand all those things”, which she was being sold.
The court also had “no doubt” that Crystal Finance, under Mifsud, breached the client’s trust when it spent “a whole year watching the value of the investment drop and did not speak to her.” Other cases involved the selling of junk bonds.
