Last year, Malta failed its final exam. It was classified as a high-risk jurisdiction for money laundering.
Malta faced increased monitoring. It was condemned to repeat the year with intensive coaching, monitoring and checks. Malta, thankfully, managed to claw itself out of that list.
This year, Malta won the prize for effort – for trying to encourage the weak student who badly lacks potential but still has motivation.
But Robert Abela thinks he’s got the first in class prize. He thinks he’s the best pupil in the school. “Today, Malta is an example to other jurisdictions,” he declared.
No, it is not.
Malta is a country that reached the absolute pits and was thrown in the naughty corner with Burkina Faso, Haiti, Mali, Myanmar, South Sudan, Uganda and Yemen. It holds the record of the only European Union state ever put onto the grey list.
After much handholding, threats and pressure, it managed to clamber out of that corner – only just. That’s far from being “an example to other jurisdictions”. The only example for others is how not to completely ruin your country’s investment potential.
Instead of humbled and level-headed, Abela emerged from the experience as clueless as ever. He shoots himself in the foot – and undermines the country’s reputation – by demonstrating his utter ineptitude or his unfathomable dishonesty. Does Abela really think that a country that just managed to extricate itself from such a disastrous condemnation is “an example to other jurisdictions”?
Malta, Abela claims, is a “serious and reputable jurisdiction”.
FATF made no such comments. It simply “congratulated Malta on its significant progress in addressing strategic money laundering deficiencies”.
FATF didn’t declare Malta had completed the process, just that it made “significant progress”. To make its point entirely clear, it emphasised that “Malta will work with FATF partner, Moneyval, to continue strengthening its money laundering regime”.
FATF is warning Abela: you’re not there yet, there’s much work to be done and you will work with Moneyval. That’s not an option. It’s a requirement. Your anti-money laundering regime still needs strengthening. Despite spelling it out for Abela, the man seems impenetrable.
Abela’s comments about greylisting are revelatory. He blamed his predecessor, and rightly so, for Malta’s predicament. Abela lamented that when he became prime minister in January 2020 he found several negative Moneyval reports. He highlighted the 2018 Moneyval report as “the one that was most negative”.
And, yet, Joseph Muscat did nothing about it, according to Abela.
The reforms “started before June 2021 when the action plan was agreed with FATF – they started in January 2020”, Abela insisted, making it clear that, if it were for Muscat, Malta would still be on that high risk jurisdiction list.
“We must continue to work to remain being considered a jurisdiction of excellence,” he bluffed. Malta is no jurisdiction of excellence. It’s an embarrassment to the European Union which has suffered the indignity of having one of its member states relegated to the dustbin of nations for a year.
The Council of Europe just passed a resolution condemning “the systemic malfunctioning of democratic institutions in the country”. That’s not excellence, that’s a failed state. But Labour’s standards are somewhat different from the rest of the world’s.
Malta holds the record of the only European Union state ever put onto the grey list- Kevin Cassar
“So, if Malta is such an excellent jurisdiction, what happened to the investigations into Konrad Mizzi and Muscat,” he was asked. Abela’s cynical reply: “The government respects its institutions and allows them to work freely; the government does not interfere in any magisterial processes or inquiries.”
Just five months earlier, the government party whip, Glenn Bedingfield, launched an unprecedented attack on Magistrate Gabriella Vella who authorised the search at Muscat’s residence. Bedingfield attacked her for conducting the search at 7am, “a time that is inconvenient for every family”.
He accused the magistrate of breaking the code of ethics of the judiciary. He made the bizarre accusation that “some institutions are uniting to strengthen the campaign against the government”. “The aim of these institutions,” Bedingfield insisted, “is for there not to be the Labour Party in government.”
If the comments of the Labour whip were appalling, Abela’s were brutal. He threatened the institutions openly, soon after Muscat’s home was searched. “My message is one: as a government we always trusted the institutions but the institutions need to be careful to retain our trust.”
He vilified the magistrate, commenting that, as a court expert, he found it “difficult to understand” why the mobile phones of Muscat’s daughters had been confiscated. “It is in the power of the magistrate but that power needs to be exercised within the limits of the administration of justice and for no other motive”, Abela charged.
The prime minister was publicly intimidating the magistrate, issuing threats of withdrawing trust and fomenting rage among Labour supporters by imputing malicious intent to the inquiring magistrate. He warned the magistrate to “be careful”.
Barely five months later, Abela has the cheek to claim that he “does not interfere in magisterial inquiries”. And that Malta is “an example to other jurisdictions”.
Abela’s lalaland claims grow increasingly delusional. Abela expects the nation’s eternal gratitude for dragging us out of the stinking excrement Labour flung us into. He’s bragging he’s saved Malta from the grey list. He’s boasting he’s kept his promise “to start the process to keep Żonqor in its natural state”.
Labour will now give AUM more land at SmartCity in exchange for Żonqor’s return. He’s bragging that the land Labour stole from the people of Cottonera to donate to AUM will now “be given to the people”. He’s gloating over the “balance” he’s struck by allowing Clint Camilleri’s canvasser and Joe Portelli’s business partner to continue to set up sunbeds and umbrellas at Comino’s Blue Lagoon.
“That should serve as an example of how things should be done all over Malta,” Abela concluded. What planet is this man on?
Kevin Cassar is a professor of surgery and a former PN electoral candidate.