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The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) issued a gaming company’s license knowing its ultimate beneficial owner (UBO) was facing prosecution in Italy for financial crimes. According to documents received by Fintelegram, MGA was aware of criminal investigations and the pending charges against Marcel Boekhoorn and his Habanero Systems Limited during the licensing procedure. In 2019, the Durch billionaire Boekhoorn was accused by prosecutors in Reggio Calabria, Italy, of using “money, goods or assets of illicit origin.”
Habaneros Systems Limited d/b/a Habanero (www.habanero.com) is an MGA-licensed igaming operator (license no MGA/B2B/643/2018). The company is controlled by Marcel Boekhoorn via the Curacao-based Habanero Systems B.V. MGA correspondence shows internal requests for missing or additional due diligence documents in 2020 on other shareholders in the Habanero ownership structure. This request appeared to have raised the wrath of the current MGA CEO Carl Brincat (LinkedIn).
In the October 2020 correspondence, the then Chief Legal and Compliance Officer Carl Brincat asked two other MGA employees “if they had a majority” in the regulator’s fit and proper committee, which is tasked with assessing whether MGA license applicants are fit and proper.
Carl Brincat said in the email correspondence that such a majority would allow them to “overrule” and “get this shitshow over with.” To this email, which Fintelegram is publishing, Karl Brincat Peplow (LinkedIn), who at the time acted as Chief Regulatory Officer, replied, “100% agreed from my end.”
Maltese Connections
Karl Brincat Peplow sent this email on 2nd October 2020. A few days later, he resigned from MGA. Today, Karl Brincat Peplow is a self-employed consultant. His Maltese firm, Malpep Ltd (C98086), is an MGA-approved system and compliance auditor.
Malpep Ltd holds a bank account with the Bank of Valletta. The bank’s Chairman, Gordon Cordina, is a director and shareholder of E-Cubed Consultants Ltd, which receives a monthly direct order of several thousand from the MGA. Funnily enough, the Chairman of Bank Valletta uses HSBC Bank Malta plc for banking transactions of his consultancy company.
