Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/934206
MATTHEW VELLA MALTA has edged up seven places in 20th ranking among the world's safe havens for tax evaders, according to the new Financial Secrecy Index. The index is published by fair taxation advocates Tax Justice Network, a ranking that high- lights places around the world that provide relatively safe ha- vens for tax avoiders. The last index was pub- lished in 2015, when Malta ranked 27th overall and fifth among EU member states. The 2018 index places Malta in 20th position and fourth in the EU, after the Nether- lands, Germany and Luxem- bourg. The United Kingdom places fifth. Switzerland, the United States and the Cayman Is- lands were ranked the world's biggest contributors to finan- cial secrecy. Dubbed the "global capital of bank secrecy", Switzerland re- tained the worst ranking, and the United States also moved up to second. With Bahrain and Lebanon dropping out of the top ten, Guernsey and a new entry in Taiwan replaced them. WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT WEDNESDAY EDITION €1.00 Newspaper post PAGE 9 • Editorial WEDNESDAY • 31 JANUARY 2018 • ISSUE 572 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY 4 Malta enters top rank in global tax secrecy league Top 20 billing for Malta, but fourth overall for financial secrecy among EU member states YANNICK PACE THE Maltese government is currently seeking legal advice on whether an anti-SLAPP Bill presented by the Opposition is legally viable, according to Justice minister Owen Bonnici. Legal advice being sought on viability of Opposition SLAPP Bill 2 MATTHEW VELLA THE private bank Pilatus and its owner Ali Sadr Hashemine- jad had sued the late journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia for def- amation in an American court. Court documents obtained by MaltaToday show that Sadr and Pilatus sued Caruana Galizia on 8 May in the Maricopa County superior court, in the state of Arizona, where GoDaddy.com's headquarters are located. The lawsuit, with an unspeci- fied claim for damages, was filed at the time Caruana Gali- zia had alleged that the bank had processed a $1 million transfer from a Dubai company to the wife of the Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, at the behest of the daughter of Azer- baijani President Ilham Aliyev. The reports prompted a mag- isterial inquiry over allegations that Muscat's wife was the ben- eficial owner of Egrant Inc, a secret offshore company revealed a year earlier in the Panama Papers. Pilatus wanted jury trial against Daphne for millions in damages 3 Arizona lawsuit for defamation, tortious interference with business, and injurious falsehood filed was later dismissed, a day after journalist was assassinated Daphne Caruana Galizia pictured here outside the Law Courts with lawyer Joseph Zammit Maempel