Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1491702
7 NEWS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 5 FEBRUARY 2023 Call for Applications Manager (Finance) at Teatru Manoel (Ref: HR/TM/04/2022) JobPlus Permit No: 714/2022 The Manager (Finance) reports to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and is responsible for all aspects of finance at Teatru Manoel, from transaction processing to budgeting. Working with the CEO, the Manager (Finance) will be responsible for the provision of timely and accurate financial information within Teatru Manoel and externally, as well as providing key input into financial decision-making and strategy. The Manager (Finance) will be responsible for robust and efficient financial processes and systems to deliver the highest standards of service. Interested applicants are to visit our website: www.teatrumanoel.mt for the full job description, required qualifications and instructions on how to apply. Application deadline for all calls: Friday 17 th February 2023 at noon. High-level laundering cases In recent years, the Maltese police have instituted legal pro- ceedings in cases of high-level money laundering, including against former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri and Pila- tus Bank. Keith Schembri, the once-powerful chief of staff to former prime minister Joseph Muscat, was charged with cor- ruption and money launder- ing back in 2021. The charges stem from allegations made by former PN leader Simon Busuttil, based on information in the hands of the late jour- nalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, that Schembri had transferred €650,000 through various off- shore companies that were paid out to third parties in the form of financial instruments. Here, the predicate offence was the corruption of Allied Newspapers and Progress Press, where profits were made to the detriment of Progress Press. Through his companies, Schembri is alleged to have channelled parts of those prof- its to former Allied employees Adrian Hillman and Vincent Buhagiar, in the form of a gift or personal gain. Hillman and Buhagiar were themselves ac- cused of defrauding the same company they held director- ships in. The criminal origin of the profits was hidden by moving the money through a series of transactions – 'layering'. As a police inspector testified in court, "what should have been a relatively simple transaction became a convoluted series of transactions intended to hide commissions... coordinated by the same people who were in- volved in the deal". Months later, Pilatus Bank was charged with money laun- dering. The private bank was shuttered in November 2018 when the European Central Bank revoked its license. The bank had been thrown into the spotlight during the 2017 gen- eral election when Caruana Galizia alleged that the former prime minister's wife Michelle Muscat owned the Panama company Egrant, which had an account at Pilatus. But a mag- isterial inquiry into the allega- tions found no such account attested to Egrant or Michelle Muscat, and dismissed the claims. Yet the bank was eventually hit with a €5 million penalty from the FIAU, after the mon- ey laundering watchdog found serious and systemic failures in the bank's due diligence. And Pilatus owner Ali Sadr Hashem- inejad was arrested in the Unit- ed States on charges of sanc- tions-busting, later dropped in a rare expungement by the US District Attorney. The arrest however prompted the ECB to withdraw the bank's licence. But in Malta, the police sus- pect the bank was being used for money laundering, and that Pilatus failed to flag political- ly-exposed persons and docu- ment their source of wealth and funds. What about 'pettier' crimes? In lesser caes of money launder- ing, a Sliema grocer was charged with money laundering in 2017 for using his store to cash peo- ple's cheques, which is illegal. Almost moonlighting as a bank- er, the grocer cashed cheques from third parties, charging a minor commission which went in to his day's takings, and would then cash the cheques himself. Since this is a service offered only by banks, the man was accused of offering banking services and providing services relating to finance without the necessary licenses. And by con- cealing the origin of the illegal gains, this would be a case of money laundering. Another couple who ran a butcher's shop, were also charged with money laundering because they allowed custom- ers to pay with social benefit cheques. They too were charged of operating an unlicensed fi- nancial institution and money laundering. And similarly, a couple who ran a confection- ery were also charged with the same crimes for cashing clients' cheques. nmeilaq@mediatoday.com.mt gambled away donations: why was laundering? A couple from Mosta handed a hefty €50,000 fine for gambling away charity donations meant for their son's cancer treatment, were accused of money laundering in court. Now on probation and also obliged to return the €35,000 in charity they received, the Debattista couple were charged in a case dexcribed in court as an act of "self-laundering" – meaning, the laundering of one's proceeds without hiding the criminal origin of the cash.