So the stringent procedures are not really that stringent

The Malta Gaming Authority told Times of Malta (story published today) that the two Maltese internet gaming companies at the centre of the Italian crackdown on money-laundering for the ‘Ndrangheta passed very stringent procedures and no red flags went up.

Somehow, those stringent vetting procedures missed the fact that Marco Gennaro’s wife, Daniela Giovanni Manti, was the registered owner of an Italian gaming outlet, GoalsBetItalia, raided five years ago in a crackdown on illegal gaming.

The head of the Malta Gaming Authority, Joe Cuschieri, seems busier nowadays with his work for 5G and Huawei (for which Sai Mizzi Liang was wheeled out to take the credit) – which is where his background is, after all, as he had a long career with Vodafone Malta.

He told Times of Malta that the criminal acts cited by the Italian authorities “have not yet been proven”.

Ah, so that’s all right, then. Years of intensive investigations and microscopic monitoring, by the combined forces of the Italian police, paramilitary police, Drug Investigation Agency, and anti-Mafia prosecutors who have gone after some of the world’s worst criminals, risking their own lives, might be completely off the wall. Obviously, they might have gone after the wrong guy, proving the Malta Gaming Authority right in its ‘stringent procedures’.