Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1387622
10 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 JUNE 2021 OPINION Raphael Vassallo Ah, but life isn't fair, Robert. It's what we all learnt at school… NOW that I've watched last Fri- day's FATF press conference, I can finally understand why this whole greylisting business has always been talked about in terms of a 'test', or 'exam'. Mind you: part of the reason was already evident, long be- fore last Friday. Just consider Prime Minister Robert Abela's reaction, for instance, when Malta finally got its 'result' a couple of days earlier. There he was, report-card in hand, crying at the top of his voice: 'It's just… not… FAIR!'; and, to be perfectly honest… I kind of sympathise, really. After all, it's more or less ex- actly how I myself always react- ed, each and every single time I failed Mathematics at school. It was never, of course, because I was simply 'crap at the sub- ject' (and not much good at cheating, either…); no, it was always because every succes- sive Mathematics teacher I ev- er had – from Year Six, all the way to Form Five – always 'had it in for me', for some reason or other…. And what do you know? That's how it's always been with every successive govern- ment of Malta, too: whenev- er faced with any form of any international condemnation whatsoever. It is never, ever our own country's fault, for always find- ing it so darn difficult to just 'do things by the book'… … no, it's always because there's a bunch of pesky for- eign countries out there, per- manently engaged in a global conspiracy to stop us from ever achieving Total World Dom- ination (as we so easily could, of course, if it weren't for so much dratted 'foreign interfer- ence').… But last Friday's press con- ference – you know, the one where the FATF finally came round to explaining why it chose to grey-list Malta, after an agonising two-day wait – well, let's just say it drove the same connection home… ooh, so much more forcefully than that. Starting with Marcus Pleyer himself, the FATF's German president, who… erm… how can I put this? I'll be damned if he didn't instantly remind me of all the strictest teachers or headmas- ters I've ever had at school: possibly including a couple of fictitious ones, too (like Mr Quelch from Billy Bunter; or Andrew Crocker-Harris from 'The Browning Version'…). Those gimlet eyes, that tone of voice… even the long wait, between the time we found out we were 'in trouble'… and the time we finally found out why… It all took me right back to Brother Martin's office at De La Salle College, all those years ago… where – after an eterni- ty of waiting on that dreaded bench outside his office door – we would eventually be given a long, patient and exhaustive explanation, of all the precise reasons for which we were about to receive such a good (and richly deserved) WAL- LOPING… Ah, the good old days... But back to Marcus Pleyer: even the way he eventually turned his attention to Malta – in a press conference that was otherwise dominated by Paki- stan – betrayed a vague hint of 'headmaster-like' impatience, when faced (yet again) with the naughtiest kid in the school. His actual words may have been: "There have been a lot of reports about Malta in the me- dia, so I'm happy to update you about this…" … but – loosely translat- ed from 'headmaster-speak' – what I heard sounded a lot more like: 'Look, I'm sick and tired of listening to all your lousy excuses; you know per- fectly well why you're here, but I'm going to spell it out to you anyway…" Which, of course, he went on to do: starting out by remind- ing us that the process of eval- uating Malta actually began in 2019 – translation: 'We've been repeatedly warning you for over a year now. I'm really starting to lose patience, you know…' – and proceeding by spelling out, in no uncertain terms, exactly which of the 'recommendations' Malta has failed to implement (with such catastrophic consequences for the entire country). In his own words: "[Malta's] final report outlined a large number of […] serious signif- icant, strategic deficiencies. Since then, the FTAF recog- nizes that Malta has made good progress in a number of areas. However, serious issues remain, including issues con- cerning criminal tax and relat- ed money-laundering CASES [my emphasis]. Malta's FIAU needs to support law enforce- ment authorities to pursue these kinds of CASES [my em- phasis, again]; and focus their analysis there…." And… well, there it is: so clearly spelt out, that he may as well have written it in chalk on a massive blackboard (wearing a mortar-board, while he was at it). Finance Minister Clyde Caru- ana can try and blame it on 'cryptocurrency' as much as he likes – or on the Opposition's 'treachery', if it comes to it – but what the President of the FATF is telling us there, is that there are individual CASES (yes, my emphasis, yet again), involving tax evasion and mon- ey-laundering, that have yet to be properly investigated, pros- ecuted and brought to justice. And… um… gee, what 'cases' could he possibly have had in mind? But – and now I am begin- ning to seriously suspect he's a German doppelganger, of the headmaster we affectionately (and apprehensively) knew as 'Tinu' – Pleyer went on to ac- tually spell that out for us, too. Turning to the action plan that Malta now has to imple- ment to get out of this predic- ament – ideally (albeit unre- alistically) by as early as next October – he quite emphati- cally singled out one, particular example: "The Maltese authorities also need to ensure that beneficial ownership information is ac- curate, and up to date. This of- ten relates to anonymous shell companies…" This time, the emphasis was provided by Pleyer himself. Not only did he confirm that the main reason for Malta's greylisting, was in fact the one that our government has been vehemently denying for at least four years – i.e., that it is ul- timately tied-up with all the 'unfinished business' revealed by the Panama Papers – but he even narrowed the focus down to 'anonymous shell compa- nies' owned by mysterious, un- disclosed 'ultimate beneficiary owners'… Now: if this really was a good old-fashioned 'Brother Mar- tin'-style dressing-down, it would probably have ended with… 'and I'm talking about YOU, YOU, and above all… YOU! Now, come up here and face the music!' But by this point, I reckon Marcus Pleyer realised that he was not, in actual fact, address- ing the assembly of a Maltese Catholic school for boys in 1977… even though he did end with what could have been a classic Brother Martin quote: "The Maltese government has given a high level of PO- LITICAL commitment [three guesses whose emphasis, this time] to continue making the necessary changes. I urge them do so…' Ouch! Ok, here, the trans- lation may have to be slight- ly longer. In those few words alone, Pleyer makes it abun- dantly clear that the FATF – for better or worse – has seen through at least part of Malta's strategy to avoid its place on that grey-list. Marcus Pleyer