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Newspaper post €1.40 Paula Mifsud Bonnici Call 8007 3434 or visit atlas.com.mt People you can trust Ta' Xbiex | Paola | Skyparks | Bormla | Qormi | Birkirkara | San Gwann | Mosta | Rabat | St Paul's Bay Atlas Insurance PCC Ltd is a cell company authorised by the Malta Financial Services Authority to carry on general insurance business. The non- cellular assets of the company may be used to meet losses incurred by the cells in excess of their assets. SUNDAY • 23 OCTOBER 2016 • ISSUE 885 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY SUNDAY • SUNDAY • 23 OCTOBER 2016 • ISSUE 885 23 OCTOBER 2016 • ISSUE 885 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY maltatoday Paula Mifsud US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS 14-15 8 'A Budget without vision' Convicted Greek fraudster wanted Malta bank licence Paula Mifsud Bonnici SUNDAY • SUNDAY • malta Paula Mifsud 14-15 14-15 14-15 'A Budget without vision' 'Preti' handsome price for masterpiece Heritage Malta says €75,000 artwork is no dud • BACK PAGE 8 maltatoday malta YOUR FIRST READ AND FIRST CLICK OF THE DAY WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT The common people versus the elite? America's untypical election 16 17 4 'NDRANGHETA gaming bust MATTHEW VELLA A Greek businessman connected to Capital- One Investment Group in Malta, was plan- ning to open a bank on the island, MaltaTo- day has learnt. Ioannis Moustos had already been con- victed of securities fraud in Greece in 2007, before his plan to open the bank in Malta could even achieve fruition: the reason Capi- talOne had given notice to the Malta Finan- cial Services Authority that it was increasing its share capital to €200 million. But it is unclear so far whether Bank of Val- letta, which hosted CapitalOne's accounts, had alerted the Financial Analysis Intelli- gence Unit as to the large transactions pass- ing from Greek companies into CapitalOne, when Maltese police started investigating the company on suspicion of money laun- dering. CapitalOne has now made headlines in Greece since MaltaToday revealed that Mal- tese police were investigating the company on alleged money laundering, following a 2012 drug bust in Amsterdam. Dutch police had requested the freeze on CapitalOne bank accounts in Malta, when it found that poker player Robert Soogea – ar- rested on suspicion of drug trafficking – was an owner of a CapitalOne subsidiary. In Malta, police found that CapitalOne was owned by nominee company Baltimore Fi- duciary. But when investigators on 13 Janu- ary 2013 informed top brass that Nationalist MP Beppe Fenech Adami – then parliamen- tary assistant for home affairs – was a Balti- more director, the police investigation into alleged money laundering was not pursued further. Fenech Adami claims he was not a hands- on director at Baltimore and that he was never remunerated for his services. Al- though he signed off on the fiduciary's an- nual accounts, CapitalOne's banking trans- actions were managed by Baltimore's owner and co-director, Richard Abdilla Castillo. A inquiry is now underway to establish why the police investigation did not proceed as expect- ed. CAPITALONE INVESTIGATION PAGE 2 MATTHEW VELLA GOZO minister Anton Refalo (pictured) is insisting he has declared all rental income in his ministerial declaration to parliament, despite registering no form of such income in his tax return for 2014 earnings. Tax returns obtained by MaltaToday show that in his tax form covering his 2014 income (filed in 2015) does not list any form of rental income. The previous year, he declared €13,500 in rental in- come and a property maintenance reduction of €2,700. From tax returns dating since 2008, this was the only year in which Refalo declared rental income in his tax return, as provided to this newspaper by the parlia- ment. The rental income is related to part of a large num- ber of properties he declared in his 2013 parliamentary declarations – no less than 16, comprising of at least 11 apartments in Gozo as well as two others in Malta, apart from various other residences, offices, and land. MaltaToday requested that the minister, in the spirit of transparency, declare whether he had rented out any property before 2012, and to explain from which prop- erties his €13,500 rental derived in 2013 – when he was made a minister – and whether he had rented any properties after 2013. In his answer, Refalo re- fused to give details but referred MaltaToday to his parliamentary declarations, which for 2015 lists €7,200 rental income, but is not expressly stated as such in tax re- turns provided by the House of Representa- tives. Property-rich Gozo minister's rental income falls in 2015 Italians give mafia's 'Malta man' betting licence for turning informer PAGE 3 Convicted Greek fraudster After extradition, a new gaming venture