The European Commission on Thursday stepped up legal action against Malta and Luxembourg for not fully applying European Union rules to prevent money laundering at banks and through companies.
They are among several EU states where banks have been embroiled in money laundering scandals, but they have failed to strengthen their rules to counter financial crime, according to the EU Commission.
Malta has been subject to a rarely-used disciplinary procedure after serious shortcomings emerged in its supervision of Pilatus Bank, an international lender based on the island that was shut down this week by the European Central Bank over money laundering and fraud allegations.
The lender had received a clean sheet from Maltese authorities despite allegations of processing corrupt payments for senior Azeri and Maltese figures by investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was killed a year ago by a car bomb….EU steps up legal action against Malta, Luxembourg over money laundering/ Reuter
Last April, a Maltese journalist published stories saying a private bank on her island was serving high-ranking customers in Azerbaijan, and alleging it was processing corrupt payments. Six months later the journalist, Daphne Caruana Galizia, was murdered.
