Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1545896
YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT SUNDAY 19 JULY 2026 • ISSUE 1394 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY maltatoday €2.20 Quality and quantity Yorgen Fenech on trial over Daphne Caruana Galizia murder The trial through a sketch artist's eyes MHRA CEO Andrew Agius Muscat on managing quality and quantity tourism Melvin Theuma confidante, Edgar Brincat, known as il- Gojja, testifies INTERVIEW MT2 PAGE 6 KARL AZZOPARDI kazzopardi@mediatoday.com.mt Obscure crypto marketing firm feels like a Ponzi scheme DistributeX promises easy money for simple mundane daily tasks but the platform raises several red f lags IN a TikTok video, Mary re- counts how her life was trans- formed after a friend introduced her to a cryptocurrency market- ing platform in which she "in- vested" €140. Promising lucrative returns for the mundane 'work' of clicking on crypto currencies that are shown in green on the platform's app, Mary says she has earned hundreds of euros. She proceeds to show her fol- lowers a video of how the app works encouraging them to join the community. Mary, not her real name, is ad- vocating for DistributeX, an ob- scure platform, which according to industry sources has the mak- ings of a digital Ponzi scheme. Promoters of DistributeX like Mary encourage new recruits to deposit cryptocurrency, complete a series of daily tasks through a mobile application and earn additional rewards by intro- ducing new members into the network. The catch is that no withdraw- als are allowed before the lapse of 180 days and only if the daily tasks are all completed. Just missing one daily task would reset the 180-day counter, effectively keeping your 'invest- ment' trapped in a never-ending cycle. Several profiles on TikTok be- longing to Maltese and foreign individuals promote Distribute X. But the marketing drive is not only limited to a digital footprint. CONTINUES PAGES 2-3 Reliance on one hospital risks disaster MALTA'S reliance on a sin- gle major hospital leaves the country dangerously exposed in the event of a major disas- ter, a World Bank assessment of emergency preparedness warns. The absence of enforceable seismic and fire safety build- ing codes is also flagged as major risk factors. JAMES DEBONO jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt CONTINUES PAGE 4 PAGES 6-7