EU prosecutor probing 17 Malta cases involving over €253m in damages
Malta to nominate new prosecutor to EPPO this year, as Yvonne Farrugia’s six-year term coming to an end
EU prosecutors are probing 17 cases in Malta with estimated damages of €253.5 million to the EU’s financial interests.
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) says in its annual report that three new cases were opened in Malta last year with estimated damages of €6.17 million.
With an ever-increasing case load, EPPO is keeping up pressure on the Maltese police to dedicate more financial crime investigators to work on its probes full-time.
European prosecutor Yvonne Farrugia told Times of Malta that EPPO’s operations and investigations in Malta were built up from scratch five years ago.
“It was difficult in the beginning. Initially, the national authorities were not passing on information to us and cooperation was not what it should have been. Eventually, over the years, cooperation has always improved,” Farrugia said.
She said EPPO is continuing to push for the police to be assigned full-time to EPPO cases.
If you don’t keep investing, we are going to reach a stage where we end up blocked. We certainly do not want this to happen, particularly when you see the results and amounts of damages involved in these investigations- European prosecutor Yvonne Farrugia
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While police officers assigned to EPPO investigations are not being given new cases by the local police, their time is still being eaten up by past police investigations and prosecutions they were working on before being assigned to probes led by the European prosecutor.
“If you don’t keep investing, we are going to reach a stage where we end up blocked. We certainly do not want this to happen, particularly when you see the results and amounts of damages involved in these investigations.”
Farrugia said information sharing with magisterial inquiries, another sticking point for EPPO in the past, has steadily improved.
The European prosecutor said, however, that there is still a lack of consistency in this regard, and some magistrates continue to insist on overseeing investigations without sharing information with EPP.
Networks
Farrugia noted that one of EPPO’s strengths is the ability to investigate cross-border criminal networks. She said EPPO’s wide coverage of Europe has allowed it to pick up on certain trends and the influence of particular Chinese networks.
In 2024, EPPO uncovered a fraudulent scheme in Malta to evade the payment of customs taxes and duties on the importation of clothing, bags, shoes and other goods from China by under-declaring their value and weight.
Farrugia said that, after the scheme was shut down in Malta, the Chinese networks attacked other ports in Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal, causing huge damage to the EU financial interests.
Malta is set to nominate a new European prosecutor to EPPO this year, with Farrugia’s six-year term coming to an end.
She expressed her satisfaction at how EPPO’s presence in Malta has left an impact.
“I’m in my last few months of the term. Although we do not have any final sentences in our cases, I strongly believe they will result in decisions against those prosecuted.”