Police are investigating a former executive director at the Republic of Malta Gaming Authority after he was “caught carmine handed” misusing tender internal information, The Times of Malta reports.
The agency’s ex-chief engineering officer, Jason Farrugia, is suspected of accessing secret and commercially sensitive information. Sources told the Times the breaches were uncovered after a function limited review of his act devices found he had been moving the tender information from the MGA servers to his personal account.
The sources said agents from Malta’s Financial Crime Investigation Department are at present workings to ascertain simply what he planned to ut with the information.
In a statement, the MGA said Farrugia resigned Thursday after he was told he would follow fired and reported to the police. He had worked for the office for 10 years.
“The MGA herewith declares that Jason Farrugia, formerly Chief Officer Technology within the MGA, no more yearner has any connexion to the MGA and canful no more thirster stand for it or talk on its behalf,” the regulator said.
Scandal-Hit Regulator
This is the modish malicious gossip to tilt the MGA, which is responsible for(p) for overseeing Europe’s foremost online gambling jurisdiction and an industry responsible for 12 percent of the tiny island state’s GDP.
The agency’s former CEO Heathcliff Farrugia (no telling — Farrugia is 1 of Malta’s to the highest degree common surnames), resigned in Jan after he was supercharged with corruption. He is accused of trading inward influence with Yorgen Fenech, a gambling casino proprietor and businessman suspected of complicity inward the execution of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Caruana Galazia died in a automobile bomb attack in Oct 2017. Police trust she was killed because she was investigating administration corruption linked to the laurels of an energy undertake to a troupe controled past Fenech.
Fenech is unity of Malta’s richest men. He was arrested trying to flee Malta on his yacht inwards February 2019 after a so-called “middleman” inward the Daphne Caruana Galizia slay identified him as the adult male who ordered the hit. He denies the charges.
While investigating Fenech, constabulary uncovered incriminating conversations 'tween Farrugia and the gambling casino owner on the latter’s phone.
Status Under Threat
According to authorities, Farrugia provided Fenech with commercially raw info about contender casino operators.
It is non crystalize whether Farrugia is accused of accepting kickbacks for supplying the information. The investigating was initially kept under wraps to avoid harming Malta’s report as a gaming jurisdiction, until it was uncovered past The Times of Malta.
Operators make long been drawn to Malta by its competitory taxation rate, good regulatory system, and EU membership, which has afforded it unstable financial services with the ease of Europe.
But the country has get a hotbed of financial crime, and inward June it became the foremost EU body politic to be graylisted by the intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
The demotion could get important repercussions for its economy, including its online gaming industry, as its banking sector becomes less agile and to a greater extent expensive to mesh with. Now, companies based inward Republic of Malta testament be sham to posture a higher put on the line and testament be subject to to a greater extent financial red tape.
This testament limit its invoke as an online gaming jurisdiction and for investors inward general.
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