Economy Minister Silvio Schembri has brushed off concerns that the reputation of the Malta Gaming Authority may be harmed abroad in view of police investigations and court arraignments involving former senior officials.
Schembri said that the MGA should not bear responsibility for the actions of former employees and they no longer had any connection to the regulator.
Former MGA official Iosif Galea is wanted by the police on suspicion of involvement in a racket that saw commercially sensitive information leaked from within the gaming regulator.
Galea was subject to two European arrest warrants and was arrested in Italy last month in connection with a German investigation linked to tax evasion in a separate case.
Concerns have been raised as to how Galea was allowed to travel on several occasions, despite being wanted by German authorities for over a year.
Retired judge Franco Depasquale will be heading a police complaints board investigation into why the police had not acted on this information.
In May, another former senior MGA official and his wife were charged in court with money laundering in relation to his work at the gaming regulator.
James Farrugia and his wife Christine pleaded not guilty to the joint charge of money laundering, with Mr Farrugia facing separate charges of extortion, accepting bribes, fraud exceeding €5,000, misappropriation, trading in influence, disclosing confidential information and computer misuse.
Farrugia resigned from his post as chief technology officer at the gaming regulator last year after being suspected of leaking sensitive information.
Asked on Wednesday whether he was concerned that these events would strike a blow to the regulator, Schembri said that Galea had not worked for the Malta Gaming Authority for a number of years.
“I don’t think that if a person worked for a company five or six years ago that company should be held responsible for his actions,” he said.
“Iosif Galea has not been an MGA official for some time, so there is no relationship between the MGA and Iosif Galea.”
Asked repeatedly whether he thought this would have an impact on the MGA’s reputation, Schembri insisted that there should not.
“There should be no impact as Galea has nothing to do with the MGA’s current operation,” he said.
Schembri was answering questions from the media after a press conference in which he inaugurated new premises for the gaming company PressEnter in Sliema.