I don’t think I miss the point at all. The Malta Financial Services Authority is fully aware of EU requirements. The head of its legal unit sits on the board of the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit.

The police, the Attorney General and the MFSA under the FIAU umbrella are supposed to be working together to streamline policy and report any instance of misalignment to the EU.

Therefore, if MFSA is deficient it should have turned up in the reporting at one of the other points in this triangulation, and the fact that there is a blind spot or dead angle means that someone somewhere, or all three, are not doing their job.

There is no requirement for the service provider to inform the UBO (would it kill you to write “ultimate beneficiary”?) at the place of origina (which may be multiple places for holders of several passports). Otherwise the entire Maltese financial services industry would have folded long ago.

There is no such thing as a “local” company. For heaven’s sake will everybody stop talking, writing and thinking as though the words ‘local’ and ‘Maltese’ mean the same thing and are interchangeable.

I agree that the triad are corrupt and partners in crime. But you miss the point here. We are talking about the incorporation of local companies with foreign UBOs.

You haven’t read my comment thoroughly. I said that the serious service provider informs the authorities at the UBO’s place of origin as per requirements upon incorporation. Shady ones will be shady.

Name one services provider that does that. And by default, that would mean that a Minister’s, a chief of staff’s and a Prime Minister’s recourse to a register – in their case a double set – where that is specifically and intentionally in omission is an even graver crime.

Then your friend is seriously misinformed. And you seriously misunderstand the Malta Financial Services Authority’s procedures for company incorporation. The MFSA does not provide any details about foreign beneficiaries to any foreign government. All they require is a passport, and that’s that.

There is no reason why this person should lie to me. It is standard procedure for compliance with international obligations and laws. If you know of Maltese financial service providers which don’t follow the procedure, they are in breach.