Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1521430
8 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 29 MAY 2024 NEWS JAMES DEBONO jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt THE former CEO of the Malta Gaming Authority, Heathcliff Farrugia, has been convicted of trading in influence for having informed the former Tumas magnate, and alleged murder mastermind Yorgen Fenech, about an upcoming raid at a rival casino. Farrugia was however con- ditionally discharged for three years, on condition that he does not commit another crime within the period, af- ter being found guilty of the charges brought against him, namely unlawfully disclosing information he obtained by virtue of his office and reveal- ing professional secrets. Farrugia resigned in Octo- ber 2020 after being charged over his communication with Fenech, the alleged conspira- tor in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, and owner of Portomaso Casino The chats emerged from the in-depth analysis of Fenech's phone, seized by police investi- gators when he was arrested in December 2019 over allegedly commissioning the murder of investigative journalist Carua- na Galizia. 24 pages of texts were ana- lysed as having taken place on 23 September, 2019, between 9 and 10pm, showing Fenech had spoken with Farrugia after saying that he felt disappointed with the result of the anti-mon- ey laundering compliance re- view at Tumas Gaming, which owns the two occasions Oracle Casino and Portomaso Casino. Fenech complained that the review had given his organisa- tion a bad reputation. Farrugia consoled Fenech by telling him he would delay the release of the compliance re- port, and by revealing that an- other inspection was also go- ing to take place inside Casino Malta – the casino owned Eden Leisure – which is not owned by Tumas. Magistrate Ian Farrugia de- creed that Farrugia was dis- closing this information to a person who was not meant to know these details. Farrugia pleaded that he wanted to calm Fenech down, and to show him that they also carried out similar inspections on other casinos. But the court said the pros- ecution had proven its case against the defendant, un- derlining that internal infor- mation about a list of entities that had been chosen for an anti-money laundering investi- gation was secret and sensitive information, meant to remain strictly confidential. Suspended sentence for former gaming regulator who spoke to Yorgen Fenech Former MGA chief executive officer Heathcliff Farrugia Former MGA chief Heathcliff Farrugia gets three-year conditional discharge for disclosing professional secrets to Yorgen Fenech 49% of young Maltese workers aged aged between 25 and 34 still lived in the parental home according to figures included in a study published by the EU Agency for the improvement of living and working conditions. (Eurofound). The statistics are based on calculations made by the au- thors of the report using EU- SILC microdata. The report entitled 'Becom- ing adults: Young people in a post-pandemic world' shows that a significant proportion of young Europeans aged between 25 and 34 remain living with their parents, even when they are in employment. Malta had the fourth highest percentage of young working people in this age group who lived with their parents. Only Croatia (65%), Slovakia (60%), Greece (57%) Bulgaria (50%) reported a higher percentage than Malta's. The percentage of 25 to 34 year olds who live with their parents ranges from only 2% in Finland and Sweden to 65% in Croatia. The percentage of young peo- ple living with their parents was slightly higher in Malta than in Italy (48%), Spain (42%) and Poland (42%). The report also shows that Malta has the highest percent- age of young people aged be- tween 15 and 29 who live with their parents. In general, Nordic countries like Sweden (31%) Denmark (35%) and Finland (43%) re- ported the lowest prevalence of young people living with their parents In contrast, in southern Member States, most young people aged 15–29 live in the parental home. The highest prevalence is in Malta (95%), Croatia (93%) and Italy (91%). While students are much more likely than those in em- ployment to be living with their parents, according to the re- port a significant proportion of those young people of working age who are likely to have com- pleted their education (those aged 25–34) remain living with their parents, even when they are in employment. "This points to the obstacles that high living and housing costs present on the pathways of young people to independ- ence and to shortages of avail- able housing", the report con- cludes. Half of young Maltese workers live with their parents Eurofound study shows that in 2022 49% of Maltese workers aged between 25 and 34 still lived in their parents' house. Moreover 95% of all 15 to 29 year olds also lived with their parents. A significant proportion of young Europeans aged between 25 and 34 remain living with their parents, even when they are in employment