ITALY'S FINANCIAL INTELLIGENCE UNIT OPENS A CRIMINAL PROBE INTO MALTA'S JOSEPH MUSCAT REGARDING HIS FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES IN ITALY

 

The Unita di Informazione Finanziaria per l'Italia Italy's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has opened a criminal probe into the activities of the disgraced former Prime Minister of Malta, JOSEPH MUSCAT, and his Maltese criminal associates, involving financial transactions that they have conducted inside Italy. Investigative reporters in Malta have long suspected that Muscat has had a close relationship with elements of traditional Italian organized crime, commonly known as the Mafia, in Sicily.

Muscat's longtime Chief of Staff, KEITH SCHEMBRI, was recently arrested on suspicion of money laundering and corruption. While he had not yet been charged with a crime, it is believed that such charges are imminent. Other individuals were also arrested at that time, and hundreds of companies and other entities were named in a freeze order designed to seize criminal proceeds  held by those businesses. Schembri is known to have traveled to Milan a couple of days before his arrest in Malta.

We do not ordinarily disclose the identity of law enforcement and regulatory that agencies involved in pending investigations, but in this case, we have been permitted to name the specific agency involved by our sources. We hope that additional information will be released shortly.