People connected to politicians have got to be more careful

That might seem to be stating the obvious, but apparently it is not, especially where fiduciary services are concerned.

I can understand how frustrating it must be to have extra burdens placed on you because you are connected somehow to a politician, or are a politician yourself, but the fact is that people with criminal or manipulative intent – especially the Italian crime syndicates, who have a long and experienced history of this – will go straight for the people at the top.

That is how they build what they assume to be their protection and their networks.

If a crime syndicate has a choice between a fiduciary services company in which the son of the former prime minister is a shareholder, and another one in which the shareholders are just anyone, it will go for the former, without question.

It then looks as though the son of the former prime minister is deliberately seeking out operations connected to crime syndicates. He is not. They are deliberately seeking out his company. That is how they operate.

David Gonzi, for instance, did not go after the companies himself, but he would most certainly have been the attractive bait. We have to bear in mind that his father was actually the prime minister when those companies were incorporated in Malta. That would have been very attractive to the ‘Ndrangheta.

Now, the various crime syndicates will be looking for fiduciary services companies with connections to current crop in power – people linked to Labour politicians or the Labour network. They have to be ultra-cautious.