Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/606717
2 maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 25 NOVEMBER 2015 News Gaming specialist charged with fraud, money laundering Betsson key affiliate manager Christiaan Alexander Van Dalen, 41, appeared in court under arrest, accused of having used player details to create artificial website traffic in order to inflate his commission MATTHEW AGIUS A Dutch online gaming special- ist was yesterday remanded in custody, as well as having all his assets frozen, after being charged with fraud, money laundering and computer-related offences. Betsson key affiliate manager Christiaan Alexander Van Dalen, 41, appeared in court under ar- rest before magistrate Char- maine Galea, accused of having used player details to create ar- tificial website traffic in order to inflate his commission. Inspector Jonathan Ferris told the court that the accused's role in the company was to strengthen existing client relations. Investi- gations revealed that the accused had created websites for online casinos and was "retagging" play- ers from Betsson under his name, thereby creating commission for himself. €153,000 was calculated to have been defrauded from Betsson, said the inspector. The funds would be deposited in what he called "electronic wallets", from which they would be transferred to his wife's HSBC accounts and the accused's Netteller account. Around €35,000 were also trans- ferred into a Filipino account held by his wife. The rest of the money remained unaccounted for, although some of it appeared to have been used to purchase a property in the Philippines, said Ferris. Together with Inspector Ray- mond Aquilina, also prosecut- ing, Ferris requested the court to impose an asset freeze on all of the accused's funds and those of his wife who, although unaware of the fraud, was in possession of monies obtained through it. Legal aid lawyer Joseph Ellis strenuously objected to the freez- ing order on the wife's assets, the lawyer questioning how such an order could be issued against a person who had neither been charged, nor accused. "If the legislator said you can accuse ABC and issue a freezing order against any other person on earth that makes no sense... the law does not give you the prerogative or the right to freeze monies belonging to a third par- ty." He challenged the prosecu- tion to specify under what provi- sion of law they were requesting the order. Inspector Aquilina explained that the proceeds of his activities were also placed in online wal- lets made out in his wife's name. Once the money was paid into these wallets by Betsson, the ac- cused would transfer them to his wife's HSBC account. "Even sim- ple detention of the money would constitute money laundering," added the inspector. Lawyer Ian Vella Galea, appearing parte civile for Bets- son, added that it was "very clear that he parked the funds in his wife's ac- count," which he also clearly con- trolled. "There is a risk that if the freezing order is not issued, all funds will be lost," concluded the lawyer. Dismissing Ellis' objections to the order, which he described as "outlandish and alien to our judi- cial system", the court proceeded to impose the asset freeze, allow- ing the accused to access only €13,000 of his funds and pro- hibiting him from transferring or otherwise disposing of any property. It ordered a report on the assets held by the couple to be drawn up. "I am freezing the money which the accused has control over," ex- plained the court. Asked by the defence whether this also affect- ed the accused's wife's parapher- nal property, the court replied that it did. In turning down the defence's request for bail, the magistrate also ordered the director of pris- ons to bar the accused from ac- cess to any IT facilities, in order to prevent him from accessing his online gaming accounts and tampering with the evidence. Enemalta, GRTU ordered to pay €250,000 in compensation for 'anti-competitive practices' MATTHEW AGIUS A petrol station owner has been awarded nearly €250,000 in com- pensation after a court held that Enemalta Corporation, the Energy and Water Services Regulator, the Ministry for Energy and Health and the GRTU had colluded to restrict fair competition. In 1997, the GRTU and Enemalta entered into an agreement under which the commission paid on eve- ry litre of fuel sold would increase to €0.0388, as long as automated pumps were installed and would only operate during certain hours of the day. Owners of fuel stations who did not agree with this agreement were to be penalised by the deduction of €0.0093 from the commission paid on every litre. In 2000, Hompesch Station Lim- ited had purchased a petrol station in Zabbar from Velga Brothers Lim- ited, which had pioneered a "semi- automatic" fuel selling system. This system worked by having customers fill their own vehicles, after which they would pay for the fuel at the cashier. This system had proved wildly popular with customers in the past and the station had registered a sub- stantial increase in sales, when com- pared to stations which only oper- ated automated pumps. It also went counter to a 1999 GRTU circular prohibiting its mem- bers from manning petrol pumps after 6pm or on Sundays and public holidays, during which times only automatic pumps would be permit- ted to operate. The success of the petrol station drew the ire of its competitors. En- emalta, under pressure from the GRTU, had declared the company to be in breach of the 1997 agreement, as a result of which the company became ineligible for an increase in commission. The petrol station's previous own- ers had complained to the Malta Resources Authority about the agreement between the GRTU and Enemalta and their complaint had been upheld, the authority holding it to be anti-competitive. In fact, in 2002, the MRA had ordered En- emalta to stop discriminating be- tween methods of distribution and pay the same commission to all vendors, but the corporation had ig- nored this directive. Bizarrely, the same arrangement regarding the hours of manned op- eration of fuel pumps which had been held to be anti-competitive then entered into law through Legal Notice 102 of 2002. 2005 saw the owners file a com- plaint with the European Commis- sion, which referred the case to the Commission of Fair Trading, which recommended the lifting of these rules, four years later. However, as the legal notice did not affect trade between member states, the Com- mission was precluded from declar- ing Legal Notice 1 of 2006 (which had replaced legal Notice 102 of 2002) anti-competitive. In 2010 the Maltese Commission for Fair Trading declared the 1997 agreement, as well as the subse- quent legislation, as an obstacle to fair trade. LN 1/2006 was held to be "in contempt of all principles of fair competition as understood in the EU," requesting the Maltese author- ities to take the appropriate action. The owners of Hompesch Station Ltd filed a case before the civil court, arguing that the defendants had acted in a discriminatory and anti- competitive manner, which resulted in loss of commission and profits. They requested the court to liqui- date damages accordingly. In his judgment, delivered in the First Hall of the Civil Court yester- day, Mr Justice Mark Chetcuti up- held Hompesch Station Limited's arguments and declared their rights to have been unfairly prejudiced. In spite of the MRA's insistence that there was no clear correlation between the changeover from the partial to the fully automatic sys- tem and the level of sales, the court estimated the lost revenue between 2003 and 2010, when the station was sold, to be €32,700 per year. In total, the court awarded the plain- tiffs €242,000 in damages to be paid by Enemalta, the MRA, the Energy Ministry and the GRTU. Syrian, Nigerian and Ivorian men plead guilty to immigration offences MAT THEW AGIUS THREE foreign men have been handed suspended sentences for immigration offences, dur- ing separate arraignments made yesterday. Ousman Kere, a 28-year old Ivorian, and 39-year old Chuk- wuka Samuel Okon from Nigeria were both arrested yesterday at the airport while attempting to use someone else's passport to travel to Italy. Inspector Darren Buhagiar told Magistrate Charmaine Galea that both Kere and Okon had been granted refugee status in Italy. Kere had told police that he had tried to use a friend 's docu- ments to travel back to Italy in order to renew his own, expired, travel documents. Okon claimed to have lost his documents and that the replacement papers had not been issued in time for his trip to Malta. The inspector informed the court that Okon had been trav- elling back and forth between Malta and Italy since 2013, add- ing that the police had estab- lished that he was working in Malta without a work permit. Both men pleaded guilty and were handed a one-year prison sentence, suspended for three years. Also arraigned was a 31-year- old Syrian, Ahmad Shamou. In- spector Buhagiar explained that the accused had been arrested in the UK and sent to Malta under the Dublin procedure, after his fingerprints were traced to an asylum application in Malta. The prosecution explained that when asked why he had not com- pleted this process, Shamou had explained that he had been un- able to bring his family to Malta. After this setback, the Syrian had decided to try his luck in UK, the court was told. Law yer Joseph Ellis argued that handing Shamou a prison sentence would be cruel. The accused interjected, speaking through a translator. "What I did was right, I did no wrong," he protested, although he eventual- ly pleaded guilty to the charge. Shamou was handed a six- month sentence, suspended for three years. 2