Catania: 400,000 euros in cash found at the home of a Mafia boss’s father-in-law
And it’s a big news story. But in Malta, when the Police Minister remembers to say that he had more than that – half a million – in case at home, the newspapers joke about it but don’t pursue the matter, while other people treat it as normal.
Even in Sicily, they know it’s not normal or acceptable, and that such a large amount of cash almost certainly is the result of money laundering.
Manuel Mallia, the Police Minister, gave a hasty explanation that he had sold some property in Romania. But as a lawyer and the police minister he should know that it is against the law to transact property in hard cash, and that professionals – lawyers, notaries and real-estate agents – who are faced with such attempts to transact property in cash are obliged to report the matter under Malta’s anti-money laundering legislation.
I find it astonishing that the press let that matter rest.
As a side note, it’s interesting that the Sicilians use the same expression we do in Maltese for hidden cash at home: ‘under the tile’. In English, it would be the mattress, not a tile. The English had plank floors and the Maltese and Sicilians slept on straw.
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How did all those bazuzli make their millions in the last thirty years? It wasn’t all hard graft. But when they’ve got the politicians, the government, the police and the judiciary by the balls, they’re laughing all the way to the 2050s.
It’s easy graft now.
http://m.siciliafan.it/catania-400-mila-euro-sotto-una-mattonella/
Tell him Joseph would like to speak to him.
http://www.comune.ragusa.gov.it/doc/users/31/17979att_detdir_1304_10.PDF
Our Maltese compatriot in Ragusa applies for 450000 euros in EU funds for teaching investigative journalism. ( ATTN : BAXXTER)
[Daphne – 450 euros, not 450,000. The Italians use a comma instead of a decimal point, and in any case, there are only two noughts after the comma and the amount is given in words.]
What can I say? I’ve been sounding the alarm on the Xarabank cabal for over eight years now. Like a fucking reed shaken with the wind.
One problem with Manwel Mallia’s cash is that we still do not know if it was five hundred thousand, five million, five billion, or five trillion (that’s as much as China’s reserves waiting to be invested in Malta and other dictatorships) of Euros, because there were situations where Dr. Mallia confused numbers with many zeroes.
Worse than Sicily! Any surprise there?
Having a Minister declare that he had 500,000 euros in cash at home does not seem to bother many people. Yet anyone who has had to do it knows what hoops one has to jump through with the banks to transfer one’s own money from overseas if it exceeds 10,000 euros.
There have even been reports of banks asking clients who want to withdraw a large cash sum from their own account what they want the money for, before releasing it. Yet, half a million in a cash at home raises no eyebrows. Unreal.
‘Accepting’ Mallia’s declaration of having half a million in cash, without a thorough investigation on whether the cash was actually held, and if so from where it actually originated, and why was it held in the first place, sets a very serious precedent that undermines the whole objective of such half hearted declarations.
The declaration – especially for newly elected members – should give a snapshot about the subject person’s wealth, whereas the subsequent declarations would indicate the capital accretion over the years – supposedly ‘serving the public’. Any capital accretion that does not fit in with the income/capital flows should be flagged and duly investigated independently.
Kicking off with 0.5m in unverified cash funds, gives ample leeway for ‘honourable’ members to receive kickbacks – which they can pass by as being the cash funds they held at home.