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4 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 23 APRIL 2023 NEWS Investing in funds can provide several benefits We offer over 9,000 Global Funds Diversification Professional management Variety of asset classes Calamatta Cuschieri Investment Services Ltd (CCIS) is licensed to conduct investment services business under the Investments Services Act (CAP370) by the MFSA. The value of investments, and the income therefrom, may go down as well as up and past performance is not necessarily indicative of future performance, nor a reliable guide to future performance. Investments in financial instruments carry the risk that the investor may lose some or all of the capital invested. Currency fluctuations may affect the value of investments and any income derived. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Theuma turned State's evidence after he was granted a presiden- tial pardon to testify against the alleged mastermind in the as- sassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, back in Novem- ber 2019. Theuma had been under the eye of financial crime investigators that same year, when a raid on his property found – according to some press reports – over €2 million in cash stashed away. But sources who are investigat- ing financial crime believe such amounts are not unrealistic. "We estimate that 30% of well over €30 million that gets played in the legitimate lottery market every year, could be played in the illegal lotto," one source told MaltaToday. The illegal game is a parallel lot- to, which comes with tickets, in which pundits stand the chance to win large amounts of cash – even higher than previous lottery prizes until years back. The lotto is pegged to the na- tional one, with players placing bets on a string of numbers and waiting for the national lotto win- ning numbers to be announced at the end of every week. "The major operators of this illegal lotto are a few, but they each have a corner of the island or 'districts' that fall under their control, with their runners taking the numbers in the village bars and każini," said one source with knowledge of the parallel lotto. Investigators say the operators of the illegal lottery tend to be closely connected to the world of construction or property specu- lation. "They all have legitimate busi- nesses – they are well known in town, they can be respectable types who get snapped with lo- cal politicos in the village festa. But construction is important to them because it is a world where cash transactions are constantly used. And with the volumes of cash they collect on a monthly basis... well it has to be cleaned somehow, or in some cases given to charity, if it enhances their re- spectability." MaltaToday understands that property transactions concerning the suspects in Malta's parallel lotto are under the eye of finan- cial investigators, but the lotto itself tends to be ignored by local police. "The parallel lotto is a fact of life in the village bars where it is played – regulars have a tab with the runners, where they al- ways play the same numbers." Over the last three decades, the operators of the illegal lotto have built reasonable cash floats that allow them to pay out their priz- es when players win the num- bers, but also by playing the same numbers with the official lottery as a kind of insurance. "They know which numbers tend to be played the most, or which are usually returned more frequent- ly than others... so just a way of 'insuring' themselves against successful players, they play the same numbers themselves in the legitimate lottery." A veteran social worker who spoke to this newspaper also spoke of clients with regular gambling patterns on both the legitimate, and illegal lottery. "In certain village bars, people play their numbers in both the illegal and legitimate lotto... some have accumulated debts with the run- ners, and hope they will pay off their loans, naturally at usurious interest, when they finally win the big prize." Melvin Theuma: The state-pardoned middleman in the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder operated a clandestine lottery and a police raid on his property in 2019 is said to have netted over €2 million in cash Island split into districts, with runners taking numbers in village bars and kazini MATTHEW VELLA MALTA'S Russian embassy, notoriously economical on press statements, has attempted to crowbar the legacy of the Red Army, by using the outrage caused on TVM over a vanity publication on the life of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. In a statement to the press, the Russian embassy in Kappara broke off from its usual communiqués from its foreign ministry on the invasion in Ukraine, to complain that Maltese MPs marking the Holocaust remembrance back in January, had failed to com- mend the liberators of Auschwitz – the Red Army. Joining in PEN Malta's condemnation of TVM pro- gramme Ħajjitna Ktieb over its uncritical promotion of history buff Ronald Bugeja's biography of Hitler, the embassy of Russia complained about the lack of appreciation for the Red Army in the Holocaust re- membrance of January. "It did not escape our notice that this year in the statements of the Maltese officials on the occasion of the International Day of Remembrance of the Vic- tims of the Holocaust, marked on January 27 – the anniversary of the liberation of the first and largest concentration camp Auschwitz by the Soviet troops – the Red Army did not even get a mention," the em- bassy said. Referring to the Bugeja interview, it continued: "The interview mentioned is an example of the dis- semination of pseudo-historical theories. The very fact of its appearance desecrates and denigrates the memory of the victims of war and the feat of the lib- erators. We consider the appearance of such materi- als in the public media space, especially on the eve of the celebration of Victory Day over Nazi Germany to be absolutely unacceptable." The Russian ambassador to Malta Andrei Lopuk- hov has been suspended from his honorary member- ship at the Casino Maltese, an elite social club, fol- lowing Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. In their statement, the Russian embassy expressed "deep outrage" at the Bugeja interview, using its con- demnation as yet another swipe at European leaders and ostensibly, the supporters of Ukraine against Russian belligerism. "The fact this story appeared on national television is an ominous reminder that the dangerous manipulations of European politicians... for the sake of the current political situation, are doomed to ugly 'side-effects' like this. The oblivion and discrediting of the victorious Good logically, in- evitably, leads to the justification of the conquered Evil." Russians miffed Maltese do not praise Red Army for Auschwitz liberation Ronald Bugeja and his biography of Hitler