Oh please, spare us this tripe

Published: July 23, 2013 at 7:07pm

Lawyer Manuel Mallia

Timesofmalta.com reports:

Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia said this evening his failure to declare his earnings last year in the ministerial declaration of assets was due to a misunderstanding.

He said he had been told that since he had not been a Member of Parliament last year he did not have to include last year’s income.

However, since the controversy erupted he asked for the record to be amended, he said, adding that last year he earned €137,000.

Asked about the €500,000 in cash he declared he had, the minister said this was because he had disposed of some property he had owned.

So…do we take it that he sold his property for hard cash, or as they say in Maltese, flus kontanti? That in itself would be a problem, as somebody buying real estate for half a million in hard cash has to be reported under Malta’s very strict money-laundering laws.

Has such a report been made? Imagine that.

And what’s this about his not having to report his earnings last year because he was not a member of parliament? He has to report last year’s earnings because he is a member of parliament this year. The purpose of the previous year’s report is to have a basis for assessment of movements this year and the next.




31 Comments Comment

  1. La Redoute says:

    Are those Faberge’ eggs on his antique bureau? They certainly can’t be sports trophies.

  2. Joe Micallef says:

    Is there a diplomatic way of saying “big fat liar”?

    • observer says:

      Diplomatic maybe not, but BIFAL would be an acronym indicative enough.

      After all, why worry? Mallia did not when concocting excuses – however feeble and unbelievable they may be – for his BIFALing.

    • H.P. Baxxter says:

      Hindenburg.

      (Blimp on fire. Nudge nudge.)

  3. Dumbo says:

    Probably Manuel Mallia was paid by a banker’s draft and went to the bank and cashed it to have some loose change to pay for Lidl acquisitions. I wonder if the Hon. Konrad Mizzi will ask the police to investigate.

  4. Vanni says:

    How can he get away with uttering such tripe?

    Are our journalists so blissfully stupid, to take such declarations at face value?

    Why didn’t anybody ask him for a copy of the agreement? And for an assurance that this cash has not been in any way tainted?

    Maybe Mr. Toad of Toad Hall may be ignorant of the facts, but the officiating Notary should have advised him that only money launderers, drug lords, and such unsavory characters use cash to effect large payments.

    Anyway, is Mr. Toad going to leave the dosh permanently in his house? Any bank is duty bound to question the provenance of this money, and I mean where and how the buyer (and not the Minister) acquired such a large sum. If it was tainted, it certainly hasn’t become clean just because it has been sitting for a couple of days in a house in Hastings, even if the fountain will be emptied to wash the swag.

  5. Jozef says:

    He should really keep his mouth shut.

    Which property, when did he sell, and for what sum?

  6. Dumbo says:

    I can’t fathom why these people really believe that all Maltese are gullible like the people who voted for them.

    I can understand that they are used to twisting all the time to their adulating idiots. And they abuse the ignorance of their followers to the maximum. But to really believe that all Maltese are morons is so disgusting.

  7. Min Jaf says:

    Ghax miskin ma tantx huwa midhla fil-ligi. Lanqas taghtieh tort, hux veru.

  8. Allo Allo says:

    Hope someone told him that this amount has to tally with that on the income tax return.

  9. Harry Purdie says:

    ‘Top criminal lawyer’? Or ‘Top criminal mind’. Seems to have picked up some of his defendants’ tendencies when it comes to excuses.

  10. botom says:

    The Ministers’ declarations were sent beforehand to the Prime Minister’s Office. In fact it was the PM who tabled these declarations. Is it possible that no one from the PM’s office alerted the Minister about this omission? Minister Mallia damage limitation maneuver is not convincing at all. Honorable Minister when you are in a hole stop digging.

  11. where are we? says:

    Property is handed over by a public deed. Can Mallia tell us the name of the notary who drew up the deed ?

  12. charlie says:

    The poroblem is not the fact that he failed to declare last year’s income, but the fact that he’s got half a million in cash which he claimed came from the sale of property.

    B’min jahseb li jrid jghaddi biz-zmien, Manwel Mallia? Dak li qal hija gidba, nuqqas ta’ verita’? Ikun car u jghidilna, ghax min se jixtri proprjeta’ u jhallas nofs miljum cash?

  13. anthony says:

    137000 in cheques.

    What about the rest?

    Maybe flus contanti like the 500000.

    Veru tad-dahq.

  14. Village says:

    A suspected money-laundering irregularity here which should be investigated. Cash transactions of this size would have any bank enquire whether the origins are legal.

  15. Lomax says:

    “Oh what a tangled web we weave”. (Sir Humphrey Appleby – Yes PM”.

    I still can’t fathom this half a million cash declaration. The first question I ask is: why did EM declare the sum? Secondly, where did it come from? If from his legal practice, was it declared? If not, was it paid all at one go, why did EM flout money laundering legislation? If not at one go, why not deposit it? Which begs the question: why declare the sum in the first place.

    I dare offer my own interpretation (plrase feel free to edit as you deem fit): whatever the origin (which may be as virginal as a woman who has worn a chastity belt all her life), fact is the money is (supposedly) unusable since cash transactions are no longer possible if not in small sums.With that amount there have to be hundreds of small transactions and still, what’s the use of wanting to spend the money? Now we all know about it and it is “in the system” if you will: only, of course, the money is not in the system and irrespective of what our Minister thinks , the FIAU should start asking questions. And the TCU and IRD.

    • Osservatore says:

      All one needs to do is file an STR. Any takers with time to spare?

      What a total and utter shame on the ministers to so blatantly under declare their income. If they do this in public, just think what the do when preparin their self assessment forms.

      MPs on either side appear to be imune from investigation. Which public official in his right mind will grill an MP and then spend the rest of his life awaiting payback?

      Let’s hope that by the time the whistleblower’s act is enacted, it is not just a useless toothless bin liner.

  16. Rumplestiltskin says:

    Anything over $10,000 in cash will start alarm bells ringing in any reputable bank anywhere. Regular deposits of cash anywhere close to $10,000 will still trip the alarm.

  17. matt says:

    Politicians ridicule this process because the media is virtually nonexistent in Malta. Journalists, without doubt, are shortchanging the public.

    Journalists have civic responsibility yet they are afraid to force the politicians come clean.

    With MLP in government they loose their mettle.

  18. joe says:

    Is the Tax Complicance Unit onto Manuel Mallia yet?

  19. Jozef says:

    Now then, noqghodu nikkumentaw fuq affarijiet privati tal-individwi.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Eq0bXnVcUU

    ‘To be honest.’

  20. JOSEPH says:

    Director General (Inland Revenue Department). PLEASE NOTE.

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