POSSESSION OF DIPLOMATIC PASSPORT BY DISGRACED FORMER PRIME MINISTER OF MALTA RAISES THE QUESTION: DO MONEY LAUNDERERS THERE ALSO HAVE THEM?

It was disclosed yesterday that Malta's former Prime Minister JOSEPH MUSCAT, who resigned in disgrace after his alleged role in massive corruption, as well as in the assassination of the country's most prominent investigative journalist, was revealed, was allowed by the current government in Valletta to retain his blue diplomatic passport. This fact emerged when details of his unusually lucrative severance package were made known in the country's Parliament. This is a clear violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which restricts diplomatic passports to active duty government leaders and working diplomats.

Muscat, who allegedly received hundreds of millions of Euros in bribes and kickbacks, and who is known to hold multiple bank accounts in offshore tax haven jurisdictions, has had extensive international travel since his resignation, including to several countries in the European Union, where he enjoys immunity from customs searches and inquiries, and to which he is not entitled under law.

The fact that Malta specifically allowed Muscat to retain his diplomatic passport as a private citizen is a cause for serious concern in the global compliance AML/CFT community, for we do not know whether other resigned and cashiered government figures from his Labour Party, all of whom are also suspected of criminal conduct, also were quietly permitted to retain their diplomatic passports.

This information places Malta now in the same category as those five high-risk Eastern Caribbean States (St Kitts, Antigua, Dominica, St. Lucia and Grenada) whose leaders are known to sell diplomatic passports, for cash in US Dollars, to money launderers and financial criminals, who then use them to evade customs searches at international airports of entry. Country Risk for Malta should w be elevated accordingly.