Brian Tonna of Nexia BT should be investigated at once

A comment came in this morning saying that the Malta Financial Services Authority should investigate Brian Tonna as he “may have facilitated money laundering”.

May? Keith Schembri (the Prime Minister’s chief of staff) and Konrad Mizzi (a cabinet minister) are politically exposed persons (PEPs) under the law of all jurisdictions in the civilised world, including EU law and therefore, Maltese law.

This places extremely stringent reporting requirements on financial services providers, accountants and lawyers who deal with them even when they are not their clients, let alone when they are.

Setting up a company in Panama and a trust in New Zealand to shelter it, for two leadings PEPs, and then failing to report it to the competent authorities, is a crime that carries an extremely heavy penalty. Actively participating in helping PEPs to hide assets from the authorities, or setting up asset-concealing vehicles for them, is a bigger crime and carries a greater penalty.

Making it a requirement for professionals to report any secret tax haven companies they set up for PEPs might seem counter-intuitive and self-defeating. But that is exactly why Brian Tonna shouldn’t have done it, and why he committed a crime in doing it.

I am not even going to bother saying ‘allegedly’. The proof is documented.