Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1204548
9 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 26 JANUARY 2020 NEWS Identity Malta Agency & the Malta Business Registry would like to inform the general public that as from 3rd February 2020; i. all new applications pertaining to registration of foundations and associations as legal persons in terms of the Second Schedule to the Civil Code; and ii. the submission of information pertaining to the Register of Beneficial Owners in terms of Civil Code (Second Schedule) (Register of Beneficial Owners – Foundations) Regulations and Civil Code (Second Schedule) (Register of Beneficial Owners – Associations) Regulations, shall be delivered to the Malta Business Registry, AM Business Centre, Triq il-Labour, Żejtun, ZTN 2401. The new contact persons are Dr Geraldine Spiteri Lucas and Dr Maria Schembri who can be reached on +356 2258 2300 or by email on foundations.associations@mbr.mt Any other documents relating to foundations and associations should continue to be submitted to Evans Building, Valletta, until further notice. A Christmas message fea- turing his wife was also given more prominence, with Abe- la spending upwards of €100, racking up more than 60,000 views. While Abela spent less on Facebook advertisements, he did use the social media plat- form for a longer period of time. Since announcing that he would be contesting the leader- ship election, Abela made con- stant use of the platform, with regular sponsored posts. On the other hand, Fearne started to make use of paid ad- vertisements very late in the leadership race, with his first sponsored post going up on the 27 December. Despite the leadership race starting in December and in different circumstances than he might have expected, for- mer Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had long been consid- ering an exit after the summer months. Following revelations in the Daphne Caruana Gal- izia murder case, Muscat an- nounced that he would be step- ping down from his position. But Fearne's own ambition to lead the party following Mus- cat's exit was an open secret. In August and September, Fearne took out front page covers on The Sunday Times magazine Circle and The Malta Inde- pendent on Sunday's magazine First, signaling a more visible start to his campaign build-up. A series of paid newspa- per wrap-arounds were also bought by Fearne in the week running up to the election, in- cluding on the Saturday of the election; while Robert Abela had two full page adverts on the General Workers Union newspaper l-Orizzont on the Saturday when members were going to vote. During the leadership cam- paign, Fearne also published a part-biography entitled 'Viz- joni Ta' Nazzjon', in which he expounded on his plan to be prime minister. MATTHEW VELLA THE Tax Compliance Unit was forced to transfer one of its em- ployees out of its investigations department, after the Panama Papers revealed the employee's spouse was the shareholder in a British Virgin Islands-registered company. The TCU confirmed that it had transferred one of its in- vestigators, Anton Bonnici, to another department, when it was revealed that his wife Vikie Bonnici was the shareholder in an offshore BVI company called Bacome Holdings, which was revealed in the Panama Papers data leak of 2016. The Commissioner for Inland Revenue, Marvin Gaerty, con- firmed MaltaToday's informa- tion. "I can confirm that Mr Bonn- ici was removed from the TCU immediately when the Panama Papers information was made available and till this day works in another department which has nothing to do with investiga- tions." But Gaerty said the CIR could not tell this newspaper what steps it had taken with regards to Bacome Holdings, and whether the Maltese shareholder's affairs were in order given the Pana- ma reveal. "As you are aware we cannot divulge any tax informa- tion on individuals since we are bound by secrecy and confiden- tiality." Earlier this week, The Times reported that a total of 237 Mal- tese taxpayers had featured in the Panama Papers leak, yet the po- lice never carried out a compre- hensive probe into all those indi- viduals and companies named. The bulk of the investigations were carried out by the Inland Revenue Department in an ad- ministrative process rather than a criminal probe. Last year, Inland Revenue said €9.1 million had been recovered by the taxman after offshore dealings were exposed in the Panama Papers in 2016. According to the Tax Compli- ance Unit, there were 237 tax- payers in Malta who featured in the Panama Papers – 163 in- dividuals, 62 companies and 12 trustees. Those who settled with the taxman have, so far, escaped any criminal action. Finance Minister Edward Sci- cluna has, in the past, said the au- thorities were set to place more focus on the criminal element of tax evasion, which often involved a money-laundering element. A financial crimes agency will be set up by the government but little detail about the proposal has surfaced since the idea was floated last summer. A 2019 assessment report by Moneyval, the Council of Eu- rope's anti-money laundering body, had found that the police carried out very few investi- gations on their own initiative when it came to money-launder- ing. Transfer for TCU investigator whose spouse had secret BVI company A man who accepted a package of drugs during a controlled de- livery in 2014 has lost a Consti- tutional case to have his rights declared breached. Christopher Polidano, 41 of Safi, was charged with drug traf- ficking after the arrest of Rachael Fred on her arrival in Malta from Pozzallo with 3kgs of cocaine in a false bottom in her suitcase. Madam Joanne Vella Cuschieri dismissed various claims brought by Polidano's lawyer Franco Debono, noting that the criminal case was at an early enough stage to have Fred cross-examined by the defence. No rights breach in trafficking case