Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1305625
3 LETTERS & EDITORIAL maltatoday | SUNDAY • 1 NOVEMBER 2020 Mikiel Galea Letters & Clarifications FIAU fine I refer to the article entitled "Ac- countants to fuel smuggling ring fined €59,000 by FIAU" carried by your online publication, and based on an article originally published on Page 3 of the Times of Malta of the 27 October 2020, and also reproduced in its online ver- sion. Your secondary smaller heading reads: "Accountants to Libyan-Maltese fuel smuggling ring in Operation Dirty Oil fined €59,000 by FIAU". By means of this letter, I would like to kindly re- quest your portal to carry our side of the story in order for your readers to have a balanced presentation of the facts of the matter. Allow me to first of all make it abun- dantly clear that I am not in any way contesting the facts relating to the ad- ministrative fine imposed by the FIAU on my firm. That administrative fine was issued on the basis of findings from 2019 that identified a number of short- comings in our administrative set-up, including staff that had not yet effect- ed proper training in relation to their 'anti-money laundering and terrorism financing obligations'. These matters have, since then, been addressed and resolved via a fully-fledged remediation plan carried out during 2020 in full co- operation with the FIAU. Unfortunately, the story upon which your own article is based was not built solely on the facts of the matter of the administrative fine imposed by the FIAU, facts that were already in the public domain, and which we are not contesting. The justification presented by the FIAU for the fine did not make reference to any specific client but solely to our own administrative set-up. What we found to be very worrying and damaging to our firm is that the Times of Malta' article in question made certain associations with alleged criminal activities by third parties. By selectively naming just two clients out of our client portfolio the article created a picture that could very easily lead your readers to come to the conclusion that our firm was directly involved in the alleged criminal activities. This mosaical construction is causing serious harm to our professional reputation and busi- ness goodwill by implying that, since we provided services to the two companies referred to in the article, we were some- how involved with the said companies, their shareholders or directors in any business activity, be it legitimate or illegitimate, which they might have been carrying out. I would like to underline the fact that the day-to-day management, account- ing, financial reporting and other related matters concerning both companies referred to in your article were handled directly and exclusively by the man- agement of the companies. Our only involvement was that of conducting an end of year audit of the companies based on the I would like to underline the fact that the day-to-day management, accounting and other related financial matters concerning both companies referred to in your article were handled directly and exclusively by the manage- ment of the companies. Our involve- ment was that of conducting an end-of- year audit of the companies based on the information that was provided to us as at year-end, including banking trans- actions, contracts and related paper- work, which we request from all of our clients on an annual basis. My firm had absolutely nothing to do with any deci- sion-making of the companies involved, even though readers of the article would be forgiven for linking the lacunae in our systems highlighted by the FIAU, to the activities mentioned, and subsequently jumping to the incorrect conclusion of an involvement with the alleged fuel smuggling ring. On behalf of my firm, I would there- fore like to reiterate that we were fined by the FIAU solely for shortcomings in our systems for checking on clients, that we addressed these shortcomings immediately in full cooperation with the FIAU, and that there is no association with any other activity that your article might have led readers to believe. Having explained our position, and given the facts in full transparency, I shall reserve my position at law should similar implied allegations be unwar- rantedly disseminated by your newspa- per or its online portal in the future. Chris Baldacchino CPA Chris Baldacchino & Associates