“In at least one case, they have been assisted by a ‘fiduciary’ (a legal entity which manages assets on another’s behalf) created by a former MGA official, one of a number of such organisations which help criminals obtain licenses and hide behind secretive corporations.” IRPI added that Maltese registered online gambling businesses continue to operate even after their licenses have been suspended by the regulator. “They infiltrated the sector by making deals with the owners of betting websites, many of whom are set up in Malta because it guarantees a more favourable tax regime,” Macaluso said. The latest anti-mafia operations also reveal how the lucrative Maltese online gaming licenses change hands from one criminal group to another.”Īfter his arrest in November 2017 Sergio Macaluso, a Cosa Nostra affiliate turned police informant, told investigators that the mafia’s interest in online gambling started in 2013-2014. They found repeated instances of criminal infiltration and a lack of effective oversight by the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA), which regulates the industry. “For the past decade, Italian investigators have been looking into how various mafia organisations have exploited Maltese online gaming to make and launder large amounts of money. IRPI said the industry’s success has come at a high price. Saying that journalists “have pieced together a disturbing picture,” IRPI said “Malta’s capacity to effectively police this industry has since become a source of worry for law enforcement across Europe.” The probe uncovered the extent of ties between Italian organised crime and the gaming industry in Malta.
The threat of gaming companies leaving the island came after a Palermo court issued 26 arrest warrants in an operation called Game Over. “It is easier to work with Peru or Colombia than with Malta… If Malta decides not to collaborate or replies six months or a year later, the investigation is useless,” the prosecutor, Nicola Gratteri, said. The lack of cooperation led the chief anti-mafia prosecutor in Catanzaro, a region in Calabria, to publicly declare his frustrations with the Maltese authorities last year.
Highlighting a persistent lack of cooperation from the Maltese authorities, IRPI journalists Matteo Civillini and Cecilia Anesi said Italian authorities are exasperated. Moreover, after Italian prosecutors “exposed” mafia infiltration of the lucrative online gambling industry in Malta, a number of companies threatened to leave Malta.Īccording to sources, a number of companies informed the industry regulator, the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA), they would pack up and leave if it failed to clean up the sector.
#The italian man who went to malta clean cracked
“This is the conclusion reached by anti-mafia prosecutors in Palermo, the capital of Sicily, who in February 2018 cracked down on a vast Maltese gambling network allegedly linked to families belonging to the Cosa Nostra, Sicily’s infamous mafia organisation,” IRPI said. IRPI said that when online gaming systems are controlled by organised crime they can essentially function as ATMs for criminals. Malta has been described as the “ATM for the Italian Mafia” by the Investigative Reporting Project Italy (IRPI), which forms part of the Daphne Project, a consortium of international journalists working on the investigations initiated by murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
0 kommentar(er)
