Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1339768
NEWS 9 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 14 FEBRUARY 2021 Top three ministers in each age demographic Top three ministers according to highest showing in each regional demographic Top three ministers according to highest showing in educational demographic PN voters 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 25.2% 2.0% 2.2% 2.9% 4.8% 18-35 36-50 51-65 65+ 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 18.3% 12.5% 5.8% 26.6% 25.7% 27.9% 19.3% 3.9% 28.6% 8.7% 3.8% Chris Fearne Ian Borg Evarist Bartolo Justyne Caruana Silvio Schembri Miriam Dalli Gozo Northern Northern Harbour South Eastern Southern Harbour Western 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 7.3% 13.3% 10.3% 19.8% 20.7% 3.2% 7.9% 26.5% 4.2% 21.0% 30.1% 5.2% 20.5% 34.0% 9.5% 22.8% 19.4% 4.6% Ian Borg Chris Fearne Evarist Bartolo Miriam Dalli Justyne Caruana Owen Bonnici Aaron Farrugia Byron Camilleri Primary Secondary Post-Sec Tertiary 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 25.1% 12.0% 6.5% 22.7% 18.3% 3.3% 24.2% 26.0% 3.7% 29.5% 8.4% 4.9% Chris Fearne Ian Borg Miriam Dalli Justyne Caruana Byron Camilleri Evarist Bartolo MATTHEW AGIUS A Maltese financial services provider that was at the heart of a government inquiry after a police investigation into its clients and money laundering was halted, has had a €30,000 fine for reg- ulatory breaches confirmed on appeal. The CapitalOne inquiry was launched after MaltaToday revealed that in Janu- ary 2013 – right at the start of the gen- eral election campaign that year – po- lice did not investigate leads on alleged money laundering through the compa- ny CapitalOne Investment, whose own- ership was held in Malta by Baltimore Fiduciary as nominee. At the time, Nationalist parliamenta- ry assistant Beppe Fenech Adami, was a director of the fiduciary. He resigned the fiduciary's directorship in January 2014. The police investigation was launched after a Dutch drugs bust on properties owned by one of the owners of Capi- talOne Investment Group, in Novem- ber 2012. In the course of executing a freezing request for Dutch police, the Maltese police started investigat- ing CapitalOne's operations in Malta, finding that it was owned nominally by Baltimore – a firm owned by Richard Abdilla Castillo and which had Fenech Adami as non-executive director. On 13 January, 2013, in his report to su- periors, now former police inspector Raymond Aquilina requested that he forward information on Baltimore to Europol. But the case was not pursued by police top brass, postponing any in- vestigation until the election was over with a note on the file saying "B U in 3 months" – "bring up, in three months". The inquiry headed by three retired judges after the MaltaToday story, could not establish with certainty why the case was never pursued, and why the case was finally dropped in Decem- ber 2013. FIAU fine and appeal Baltimore was already under the scrutiny of the MFSA in March 2013; a second audit requested by the FIAU started in May 2016 by the MFSA's en- forcement unit. In 2018, the FIAU rep- rimanded Baltimore Fiduciary Services and imposed a €30,000 fine over failures to implement proper due diligence and anti-money laundering setups. The company filed an appeal but on 20 January 2021, the Court of Appeal upheld the decisions taken by the FI- AU and the administrative penalty im- posed. The administrative penalties were im- posed after a compliance examination revealed that the company had fallen short of its obligations to identify and verify ultimate beneficial owners, in- cluding the details necessary to identify and verify their residential addresses. The compliance review revealed that Baltimore had failed on numerous oc- casions to obtain sufficient information to establish the purpose and intended nature of the business relationships it maintained with its customers. The FIAU's Compliance Monitoring Committee found that all reviewed files contained no information to under- stand the source or sources of wealth, source of funds and anticipated level of activity of the customers. As a result, the company had failed in all instances to collect the necessary information on its customers. Baltimore had also failed at carrying out ongoing monitoring, by ensuring that the documents, data or informa- tion held are reviewed and kept up-to- date. The company had also "failed to estab- lish and implement effective customer acceptance policies that are conducive to determine the PEP exposure of its customers and/or beneficial owners." As a result, the company did not have measures in place to establish whether customers and beneficial owners are PEPs, family members of PEPs or close business associates of PEPs. In the appeal filed by Baltimore Fi- duciary Services, Mr Justice Lawrence Mintoff dismissed all grounds of appeal put forth by the company. The court did not revise the FIAU's conclusions with respect to the breaches identified. It also considered that the informa- tion provided throughout the FIAU's supervisory and enforcement process was sufficient to allow the company to determine to which files reference was being made to in the findings report and therefore to exercise in an unen- cumbered manner the FIAU's right to submit representations to the Compli- ance Monitoring Committee. In the absence of any justifiable rea- sons, the Court said it failed to under- stand on what basis it could somehow consider the administrative penalty im- posed by the FIAU to be excessive and revise the value thereof. €30,000 FIAU fine for Baltimore confirmed on appeal