Malta at risk of intermediate money laundering
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by Vanessa Macdonald – [email protected]Local News — 29 August 2008 — 10:30CEST
It is possible that Malta is being used by criminals to launder money in the intermediate stage, according to the annual report issued by the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit.
The unit said that just over half of the Suspicious Transaction Reports (STR) filed during 2007 was related to foreign individuals or companies, 44 per cent were purely local activity and 5 per cent had both local and foreign activity.
Fraud and forgery make up the largest category of cases referred to the police (17 per cent) with drug trafficking in second place (15 per cent) and usury (11 per cent).
Last year saw the first phishing case, as well as the first conviction in the Maltese Court for money laundering, with Maria Abela being convicted to six years’ imprisonment.
