Ana Gomes rips into Malta’s financial services system: says it is tailor-made for money-laundering and criminals

Ana Gomes, the Socialist MEP who is vice-chair of the European Parliament’s PANA Committee, has ripped into Malta’s financial services system, saying it is tailor-made for criminals and money-laundering.

A particular problem, she said, is the nominee system of company incorporation, which allows “Russian doll” structures which hide the ultimate beneficial owner of the company. ‘Russian doll’ companies are those in which a company’s shares are held by other companies, with all shares in the last traceable company being held by nominees to conceal the real ownership.

Under Maltese company law, the ultimate beneficial owner of any company incorporated in Malta must be known to the Malta Financial Services Authority even if it is hidden from public knowledge by the use of nominees. This does not apply, however, to companies incorporated in secretive jurisdictions like the British Virgin Islands or Panama. This means that a company incorporated in Malta, under Maltese law, can still have its ultimate beneficial ownership hidden if the ‘last stop’ shareholder is a company incorporated in one of those secretive jurisdictions using nominees.

One very notorious example of this is Vitals Global Healthcare Ltd, a start-up company incorporated in Malta, to which the government has signed over several of Malta’s public hospitals. Its ultimate beneficial owner is concealed by a company registered in the British Virgin Islands, Bluestone Situation 4, whose shareholding (ownership) is concealed by nominees.

In other words, the Maltese public, civil service, hospital authorities, hospital employees, patients, and even the members of the cabinet of government themselves beyond Konrad Mizzi and the Prime Minister, do not know who owns the company which is running several of Malta’s public hospitals. This is a shocking situation.

Government-sponsored trolls and bright-and-beautiful supporters of the Labour Party will now be out in force on the internet to counter Mrs Gomes’s accusations with some carefully crafted arguments of their own: “kemm hi kera maaaa dik anda bzon xi zop ta iswed hi. dik ax tejr al Michelle”.