Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1496177
9 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 2 APRIL 2023 NEWS FIAU cannot name sanctioned company XNT until appeal is resolved Taxman wants '360-degree view' with new integrated system MATTHEW VELLA THE company formerly known as Exante has successfully bat- tled Malta's Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU), to have the publication of its name and €244,679 fine removed from its website until its challenge against the fine is resolved. XNT Ltd had won a first hurdle in court back in 2022 after being fined by the FIAU over various anti-money laundering shortcom- ings and for failing to carry out enhanced due diligence on its cli- ents' business. XNT, through its lawyer José Herrera, the former Labour min- ister, successfully obtained that first court decision to have the fine removed from the FIAU's website – which original link was removed by the FIAU. The government's anti-money laundering watchdog has now lost a court appeal on that decision, with the Court upholding the first court's decision on the interim order to remove the notice of the fine. The FIAU fine is being con- tested within the Financial Servic- es Tribunal. XNT is owned by Lartemisis Holdings, and its directors are Alexnadros Constantinou, Alexey Kirienko, Anatoly Knyazev, and Paulo Machado Fernandes. XNT was fined by the FIAU over its lax measures to combat finan- cial crime. In one customer file, incoming payments amounting to approximately €40 million over a period of three years had been ap- proved. In total, four incoming transac- tions were reviewed with one of the transactions exceeding US$24 million. The company said the funds were transferred from an account in the customer's name to another of his. However, when supporting doc- umentation in relation to these transactions was requested, the company only provided a con- firmation letter (for some of the transactions) that the customer holds an account and a business relationship with another bank. No further documentation was provided to substantiate the in- bound transactions and to estab- lish how the funds were generated. The company failed to adequate- ly inquire and establish the source of funds and how these were ac- cumulated. In 2015, Exante was implicated in a huge United States insider trading racket linking company officials to $100 million in profits allegedly derived from an interna- tional hacking ring that stole data from news wires to trade ahead of the market. The charges against the company were later dismissed. XNT successfully obtained a first court decision to have the fine removed from the FIAU's website – which original link was removed by the FIAU The government's anti-money laundering watchdog has lost a court appeal contesting the first court's decision on the interim order to remove the notice of the fine imposed on XNT THE finance ministry is seeking to introduce an integrated tax administration system that will give Malta's taxman an "assured 360-degree view" of taxpayers. The system will allow the Commissioner for Rev- enue to be able to extract data from all tax depart- ments concerning taxpayers, as well as link it to data received from third-party sources. The Commissioner for Revenue is responsible for the administration and collection of income tax, which includes capital gains and property tax, duty on transfers, VAT, and Customs and Excise duties, as well as social security contributions. Under the new information system, all taxpayers' data, documents and information will be linked to- gether to ensure compliance, as well as being avail- able to taxpayers themselves. The IT system will allow the tax departments to analyse taxpayer relationships for all types of trans- actions, as well as initiate administrative proce- dures and log correspondence and documents in taxpayers' electronic archives. The system will register new taxpayers upon the birth of legal persons, reflecting changes from pri- mary registers. According to a preliminary market consultation for IT providers, the finance ministry says the Com- missioner for Revenue is seeking ways of modern- ising Maltese tax administration by integrating all different tax types and supporting processes. The Commissioner has various information sys- tems, all accounting for various components of the tax regime. Instead, the integrated system will en- able the collection of all revenue due, through full automation of tax administration processes, and real-time reporting of taxation transactions, as well as timely payment of tax refunds. Reporting by Matthew Vella mvella@mediatoday.com.mt