Ex-MGA Chief Conviction Upheld for Tipping Off On line casino Proprietor Homicide Suspect
Former Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) chief govt Heathcliff Farrugia noticed his conviction for corruption upheld on enchantment this week.
As MGA chief Heathcliff Farrugia was accountable for one of many world’s foremost on-line gaming hubs. However his relationship with Caruana Galizia homicide suspect, Jorgen Fenech, was just a little too cozy. (Picture: MGA)
Farrugia was discovered responsible in Might of unlawfully disclosing info he had obtained by advantage of his workplace and revealing skilled secrets and techniques. That was for tipping off on line casino proprietor Yorgen Fenech in September 2019 that an anti-money laundering investigation was about to be carried out at a rival on line casino.
Two months later, Fenech, one in every of Malta’s richest males, was arrested as he tried to flee the island on his yacht. He was charged with complicity within the homicide of anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia who was killed in a automobile bomb assault in 2017.
Fenech, who on the time owned the Portomaso On line casino within the resort city Saint Julian’s, is at present awaiting trial for the homicide.
Incriminating Texts
Evaluation of Fenech’s cellphone after his arrest revealed conversations with Farrugia regarding rival on line casino operators that incriminated the regulator.
In texts exchanged between the 2 males on September 23, 2019, Fenech expressed his dissatisfaction with a current cash laundering assessment of the Portomaso On line casino, which he mentioned had tarnished the enterprise’ popularity.
Farrugia responded by saying he would delay the discharge of the accompanying compliance report till a forthcoming investigation of On line casino Malta, owned by Fenech’s enterprise rival, Eden Leisure Group, was accomplished.
On Tuesday, Justice Neville Camilleri of Malta’s Courtroom of Felony Enchantment confirmed Farrugia’s three-year suspended sentence, figuring out that the decrease court docket’s determination had been right.
As MGA chief, Farrugia was charged with overseeing one of many world’s foremost on-line gaming hubs. He resigned quietly in October 2022, shortly after police questioned him about his conversations with Fenech.
The Instances of Malta has advised the fees towards Farrugia have been initially hushed as much as keep away from tarnishing the popularity of the gaming business.
Widespread Corruption
Prosecutors consider Caruana Galizia was murdered as a result of she was wanting right into a authorities contract to construct an influence station, which she believed had been corruptly awarded by the Maltese authorities to Fenech’s firm, Electroglas.
She had found {that a} Dubai-registered firm talked about within the Panama Papers leak, 17 Black, deliberate to make a fee of $2 million to 2 offshore shell firms. These have been owned by Keith Schembri, the previous aide of then-Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, and Konrad Mizzi, the previous Power Minister.
Journalists who took up the investigation after Caruana Galizia’s loss of life found that 17 Black was managed by Fenech.
Brothers Alfred Degiorgio and George Degiorgio have been every sentenced to 40 years in jail for planning and planting the bomb, together with their affiliate, Vince Muscat, who acquired 15 years.
A so-called intermediary, Melvin Theuma, named Fenech because the mastermind behind the killing. Fenech claims Schembri was the orchestrator.
The scandal prompted a political meltdown in Malta, laying naked the corruption endemic within the island’s politics and enterprise sector and resulting in Muscat’s resignation as prime minister.
