The investigation, published in March 2025, exposed the inner workings of two massive investment fraud networks operating out of call centres in Israel, Eastern Europe, and Georgia. Amphora Media’s contribution focused on Malta’s role in the scheme, revealing how Maltese-registered companies, OpenPayd, were key in transferring funds extracted from victims.

Drawing on an unprecedented leak of nearly two terabytes of data — thousands of hours of recorded calls, screen recordings, and internal spreadsheets — the reporting team documented how at least 32,000 people across the globe were deceived into handing over approximately €230 million in fraudulent “investments.”

More recently, two Turkish companies owned by Ozan Özerk, the founder of OpenPayd, were under investigation for facilitating the laundering of criminal assets.  This company is not under investigation in Türkiye.

Cristian Lupșa, Chair of the Preparatory Committee of the European Press Prize, said: “What stood out again this year is the quality of journalism being produced across Europe, in newsrooms large and small, often under pressure and with limited resources. The range of entries reflects something important: all stories have a place here, from large cross-border collaborations to deeply reported local pieces that matter enormously to the communities they serve. What these stories show, collectively, is that journalism still holds space for complexity, for context, and for human experience. It remains a source of understanding, accountability, and, in many ways, hope.”

You can read the full investigation here.

For years, the number of money-laundering prosecutions in Malta remained relatively modest. Figures tabled in parliament by Jonathan Attard, in response to questions from Adrian Delia, show that in 2018, only 12 individuals were charged, rising slightly to 14 in 2019. 

By 2024, however, that number had surged to 116 individuals across 44 cases – the highest level on record. In 2025, the figure dropped, falling to 61 individuals across 37 cases.

The shift came after Malta was placed on the FATF grey list in June 2021. Malta was removed from the list in June 2022 following rapid reforms. The FATF’s recommendations focused on the transparency of ultimate beneficial owners (UBOs), the effectiveness of anti-money laundering controls, and tax evasion investigations.

In 2020, standalone money-laundering cases were more common (27). However, cases accompanied by a predicate offence – which is the separate criminal act that generated the illicit funds – have increased. 

In 2021, cases accompanied by predicate offences were 87, up from just 1 in the previous year. By 2024, 114 cases were tied to predicate offences. In 2025, that number was 61. 

The Minister’s breakdown of predicate offences identifies fraud as the primary driver of money laundering proceedings, accounting for 77 instances.

This is followed closely by: Misappropriation (39), Aggravated drug possession (17), Corruption (13), Drug Trafficking (12), Tax Evasion (11) and Organised Crime (11).

Just as these complex, multi-charge cases peak, Malta has enacted Bill 142, which introduces a formal mechanism for out-of-court settlements for breaches of Malta’s tax laws and related crimes.

The bill was introduced and approved over 12 days in August 2025. It was tabled in Parliament on the same day as Bills 143 and 144, two parts of a controversial planning reform package that has since dominated public discourse and sparked protests.

So far, lawyer Aron Mifsud Bonnici, car dealer Christian Borg, and accountants Nigel and Mikaela Scerri have used the settlement mechanism in their respective million-euro tax-evasion and money-laundering proceedings.

Malta already has a significant problem with uncollected taxes. Official figures show that as of 2024, Malta has accumulated over €8 billion in uncollected tax, €6.1 billion in VAT and €2 billion in other taxes. The government has written off over €6.6 billion of that figure.

Under this framework, taxpayers may enter into agreements with the Commissioner for Tax and Customs to regularise tax offences by paying penalties and outstanding dues, thereby avoiding criminal prosecution for the offences covered by the settlement.

The mechanism also applies to certain “connected breaches” and predicate offences, linked to the tax offence, such as money laundering and fraud.

It is already being implemented. In reply to a series of parliamentary questions by MP Adrian Delia, Finance Minister Clyde Caruana confirmed that the Malta Tax and Customs Administration (MTCA) has received several applications under the new law and is currently processing them. 

This will apply to all the 11 cases of tax evasion listed – and a host of other ongoing cases, including a €62 million VAT carousel fraud case.

The pair, who are accountants behind the firm Ennesse,  were arraigned in January 2025 after authorities reportedly discovered a €1.5 million discrepancy in their tax and VAT declarations. 

Around €15 million of their assets – spread across 15 companies – were placed under a freeze order, while a court reportedly declared there was enough prima facie evidence for them to stand trial in February 2025.

Nigel and Mikaela Scerri chose not to comment on the outcome when contacted by Amphora Media.

The Scerris are the latest to make use of a new legal mechanism introduced under Bill 142. These include: Christian Borg, a car dealer with ties to Prime Minister Robert Abela, charged in a  €1.4 million tax evasion and money laundering case; and Aron Mifsud Bonnici, a lawyer and former advisor of Konrad Mizzi, charged in a 1.6 million case and who is separately facing charges in the Vitals Hospitals case.

Under this framework, taxpayers may enter into agreements with the Commissioner for Tax and Customs to regularise tax offences by paying penalties and outstanding dues, thereby avoiding criminal prosecution for the offences covered by the settlement.

The mechanism also applies to certain “connected breaches” and predicate offences, linked to the tax offence, such as money laundering and fraud.

It is being implemented elsewhere. In reply to a series of parliamentary questions by MP Adrian Delia, Finance Minister Clyde Caruana confirmed that the Malta Tax and Customs Administration (MTCA) has received several applications under the new law and is currently processing them. 

The law could also have significant implications for a major tax fraud investigation involving a VAT carousel. 

In 2023, it was reported that Martin Farrugia and Henriette Cassar were accused of defrauding the VAT system, allegedly to the tune of around €62 million.

The investigation, known as Operation Panthera, reportedly covers the period 2012–2019 and encompasses companies linked to the contractor (including NCCF, MAM Construction Ltd, and MWF Construction Ltd), which are said to have under-declared substantial sales and VAT payable.

The pair have pleaded not guilty, and the case is ongoing. Amphora Media has been informed that the police are aware of businesses involved in the scheme, but all have so far evaded prosecution. 

Amphora Media has reached out to the police over the issue.

Lawyers close to the case informed Amphora Media that the settlement agreement was presented to the courts on 27th March, thereby extinguishing the current criminal proceedings against him. 

Mifsud Bonnici was accused of money laundering, tax evasion and making false declarations in documents prepared for the Malta Tax and Customs Administration (MTCA). In July 2025, a court declared that there was enough prima facie evidence for him to stand trial.

More than €1.6 million of Mifsud Bonnici’s assets were frozen in a court order as part of the case on 23rd July 2025.

Mifsud Bonnici is an associate of former minister Konrad Mizzi and is separately facing criminal charges related to the Vitals Hospital case. 

He served as legal advisor in former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s government, an advisor in the Ministry for Energy under Konrad Mizzi, which involved discussions on the Montenegro Wind Farm Project, was the board secretary at Enemalta, and was on the Grievances Board at Transport Malta.

According to a Times of Malta investigation, the probe into Mifsud Bonnici began following a series of large transfers worth €1.4 million to XNT Limited, a Malta-based investment firm.

Financial documents seen by Times of Malta indicated that Mifsud Bonnici received payments of over €2.4 million into his personal bank accounts between 2016 and 2019. However, during those same four years, Mifsud Bonnici declared a total income of €680,000.

A separate Times of Malta investigation also revealed how Aron Mifsud Bonnici and Robert Borg raked in over half a million euros in “dividends” and “directors’ fees” from two companies involved in the publicly funded community work scheme.

In the current case, Mifsud Bonnici used a formal mechanism for out-of-court settlements of breaches of Malta’s tax laws and related crimes, introduced by Bill 142.

Under this framework, taxpayers may enter into agreements with the Commissioner for Tax and Customs to regularise tax offences by paying penalties and outstanding dues, thereby avoiding criminal prosecution for the offences covered by the settlement.

The mechanism also applies to certain “connected breaches” and predicate offences, linked to the tax offence, such as money laundering and fraud.

It is being implemented elsewhere. In reply to a series of parliamentary questions by MP Adrian Delia, Finance Minister Clyde Caruana confirmed that the Malta Tax and Customs Administration (MTCA) has received several applications under the new law and is currently processing them. 

The law could also have significant implications for a major tax fraud investigation involving a VAT carousel. 

In 2023, it was reported that Martin Farrugia and Henriette Cassar were accused of defrauding the VAT system, allegedly to the tune of around €62 million.

The investigation, known as Operation Panthera, reportedly covers the period 2012–2019 and encompasses companies linked to the contractor (including NCCF, MAM Construction Ltd, and MWF Construction Ltd), which are said to have under-declared substantial sales and VAT payable.

The pair have pleaded not guilty, and the case is ongoing. Amphora Media has been informed that the police are aware of businesses involved in the scheme, but all have so far evaded prosecution. 

Amphora Media has reached out to the police over the issue.

In December 2025, Farrugia was approved a variation to his freezing order to transfer four leopards and four pumas to the Pafos Zoo in Cyprus.

Another case impacted by the legislation involves Nigel Scerri and his wife, Mikaela, the owners of a tax advisory and accountancy firm. The pair have been charged with money laundering, tax evasion, fraud, and other crimes, and are subject to a €15 million asset freeze.

The transactions form part of a series of asset sales tied to the Tigné Point and Manoel Island concession to redeem a €50 million secured bond issued in June 2016.

Between December 2025 and February 2026, MIDI, entered into three promise of sale agreements worth more than €18 million on Tigne land to: 

• A firm owned by Burak Başel, a Cypriot businessman in business with alleged Albanian organised crime figures (€10.2 million)
• A Panamanian company owned by Zamir Magomedovich Abdullaev(€5.5 million)
• And another with Gozitan developer Joseph Portelli, which has since been rescinded. (€2.5 million)

The over €60 million unlocked in recent deals does not include proceeds from previous sales, such as the €20 million MIDI earned through the creation of Tigne Mall plc (which was later acquired by Hili Ventures) in 2013; and the sales of individual units developed under MIDI. The €2.5 million Portelli deal is not included.

Since 2020, MIDI has recorded a profit only once – in 2021. In its 2025 financial statements, MIDI describes the bond repayment as its “paramount priority”, outlining a strategy that relies on increased residential sales, further asset disposals, and “the reimbursement by Government of the carrying amount of the net assets attributable to the Manoel Island project.”

According to the 2016 prospectus, the bond issue was mainly intended to raise funds to restructure debt and complete development works.

The Concession: 

MIDI acquired a 99-year lease of land at Tigne’ Point (108,420 m2) and Manoel Island (267,900 m2) for Lm 39,570,000, approx. €92 million, on 15th June 2000.

Under the contract, the total value for Manoel Island stood at Lm 21,320,000 (approx. €49 million). However, it should be noted that Lm 15,275,000 (approx. €35 million) of that amount expressly covered the marina and its facilities, which remain operational and seemingly still under MIDI’s control.

As of June 2025, more than €40.2 million of that remained due to the government. A significant portion of the original premium was also paid out through public and heritage works. A MIDI spokesperson previously told The Times of Malta that “€34.4 million represents a credit in respect of infrastructural and restoration works”.

In April 2020, the PA approved the transfer of 8,000 m² of land from Manoel Island to Tigne Point; calculations of ‘eligible floor area’ extended it to 8,956 m² before the PA approved the construction of a new 17-storey tower on 9,160 m².

Although the underlying concession remains subject to obligations and ground rent payable to the Government, the contract expressly permits the transfer of individual buildings and units, provided that the proportional ground rent and obligations are passed on to the transferee. 

What is being transferred in these deals is the remaining term of the 99-year emphyteusis, together with the proportionate annual ground rent and obligations attached to each parcel.

The Deals: Fort Tigne/Manoel Island, Başel, Abdullaev

17th March 2026: Manoel Island & Fort Tigne’ – Malta’s Government 
Value: €47.3 million (net reimbursement of circa €43 million) 

Now rescinded deal: 16th December 2025: Fort Tigne’ – Joseph Portelli 
Value: €2,500,000

On 17th March, the government and MIDI announced a €47.3 million deal to rescind the concessions on both Manoel Island and Fort Tigne.

A few months prior, MIDI had entered into a promise of sale with J. Portelli Projects Ltd over Fort Tigne’ and its surrounding grounds, located at Tigne’ Point, for €2,500,000.

J. Portelli Projects Ltd is owned by Joseph Portelli, who planned to construct a hotel on the site.

Prime Minister Robert Abela had described the plans as “obscene” and made reference to the site in his New Year’s message. The site now forms part of the €47.3 million deal, however, it is unclear on the distribution of value.

Joseph Portelli did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions about the deal.

19th December 2025: T3 unit at Tigne’ point – Basel Capital (owned by Burak Başel)
Value: €10,200,000

MIDI entered into promise of sale agreements with Basel Capital Limited, owned by Burak Başel, over eleven commercial premises which underlie the Pjazza Blocks as well as the building known as Unit T3, all situated at Tigne Point, for €10,200,000.

Başel has a diverse portfolio of companies, including fintechs, Finance Incorporated (owner of Paymix) and Corpayss. He also has companies that provide services for gambling businesses and operates several services within the gambling and betting industries.

Amphora Media has previously reported how in Albania, Başel is the registered owner of Universe, which lists “electronic distance gaming” among its activities and which he owns via Universal Software Solutions in Curacao.

The other owner is a company called MAREN. MAREN was once owned by Ramazan Hasanbelli, an Albanian citizen convicted in Italy for drug trafficking and organised crime. The current co-owner is his brother, Ilir Hasanbelli, who continued the business with Başel after Ramazan’s conviction.

An investigation by OCCRP, Amphora Media, Times of Malta and other global partners also revealed how Cemil Önal, a since murdered whistleblower, had alleged that Başel played a role within the gambling empire of Halil Falyalı – a politically connected Turkish Cypriot gambling mogul murdered in February 2022.

Başel has denied all connections to the case and said his encounters with Falyalı were limited to software purchase.

24th February 2026: T15 Building (Under Construction) – The 540 Hub LTD (UBO: Zamir Magomedovich Abdullaev)
Value: €5,500,000

Zamir Magomedovich Abdullaev is the registered beneficial owner of The 540 Hub Limited, a company that registered with the Malta Business Registry the same day it purchased the “T15 Building”, a building under construction at Tigne Point, for €5,500,000.

Abdullaev, a Russian-Maltese national who became a Maltese citizen in 2015, is the beneficial owner of The 540 Club Limited through a company based in Panama, Echelon Investments Limited, S.A. 

Speaking to Amphora Media, Abdullaev said that the company “intends to develop a boutique commercial building — including shops, offices and cafeterias — within the permitted small size parameters.”

He said that the final signing of the contract is subject to government approval.

Abdullaev is also the owner of PNG (Overseas) Drilling & Services Ltd. 

Abdullaev said that the parent company, PNG DSL, was “established in the British Virgin Islands about 15–20 years ago as a holding structure to provide specialised upstream contractor oil services in the former USSR countries, the Middle East and North Africa.”

He said that “between 2008 and 2023, regional branches were set up to cover key markets: Russia — for operations in the former USSR; Malta — for North Africa; and Kuwait — for opportunities in the Gulf region.”

Abdullaev ended his directorship of BK PNG, or PNG Drilling company in Russia, in November 2022. Until 2024, the 99% shareholder was Anzhella Rabadanovna Abdullaeva, but ownership has been since transferred to Poisk Holding. Abdullaev explained that Poisk Holding “was set up by the management team and external investors to organise the management buyout”. 

Abdullaev added that PNG DSL “took the decision to sell its assets in Russia and exit the market” following the conflict in Ukraine and subsequent sanctions imposed by the USA and EU in 2022. He stepped down as CEO of BK PNG in 2022 and the business was sold in stages during 2023–2024.

“The family have no involvement and or connection to the business anymore,” he added.

Abdullaev stressed that he has been a resident of Malta since 1991 and that it has been his home for many years. 

Prior to the exit from Russia, BK PNG provided services to joint ventures involving Rosneft and its international partners from the USA and Europe. Abdullaev said that “at the time of engagement, these entities complied with applicable laws and were not subject to sanctions”.

According to an industry association, BK PNG had a contract with Gazpromneft-Orenburg LLC, part of the Russian state-owned gas monopoly Gazprom at least until 2024. 

Abdullaev explained that the former entity his business worked with is distinct from the state-owned monopoly. “Under family ownership, BK PNG did not work for Gazprom. PNG DSL’s decision to exit Russia was driven by a strategic assessment of business risks, including reputation considerations. The company prioritised alignment with its long‑term international strategy and global compliance standard,” Abdullaev said.

“Our current strategic focus is on Libya and the Gulf region,” he added.

Other sales from the Tigne Point Concession: The Shopping Mall

The recent transactions form part of an overarching sell-off of several assets in Tigne’ Point, most notably the shopping mall. 

In December 2024, Marsamxett Properties Ltd, a company owned by Hili Ventures, completed its squeeze-out process of Tigné Mall plc.

Tigné Mall plc was set up in 2013 after MIDI plc, which designed and built The Point shopping mall, sold its entire shareholding in the venture. Those shares were purchased by a combination of institutional investors (Mapfre MSV Life p.l.c., HSBC and Bank of Valletta) and members of the public. MIDI received €20.9 million from the share offer.

The Hili subsidiary had acquired over 49.68% of the issued share capital by September 2024 over a span of 10 months.

The government did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions about approvals, notifications or oversight mechanisms when parcels or buildings forming part of the concession are transferred to third parties. It did not confirm whether it was notified about these deals and did not explain the due diligence process.

MIDI, Burak Basel, Joseph Portelli and the Government of Malta did not respond to questions sent.

• Malta issued over 326,000 single permits between 2015 and 2024.
• Nearly all single permit holders in Malta arrive for 12 months or more.
• The share of EU citizens among immigrants (for any reason) has shrunk during the post-pandemic recovery.
• In 2015, the share of employees and people applying for other reasons (including retirement) was about equal. By 2024, employment overshadowed the ‘other’ category.

Malta’s population has grown by over 100,000 in a decade. Behind the headline figures lies a deeper transformation; the country’s migration system is shifting away from residents and retirees attracted by favourable tax rates and weather towards large-scale import of non-EU labour.

An Amphora Media analysis of Eurostat data shows that, over the past ten years, Malta has rebuilt its migration model around non-EU workers recruited at scale to sustain rapid economic growth.

In 2015, employment-based migration stood on roughly equal footing with other forms of residence, a category that includes self-funded retirement. By 2024, employment had become the overwhelmingly dominant route into the country for third-country nationals, while self-funded retirement, coupled with other minor pathways, have lost their prominence.

EU countries like Malta can issue residence permits for various types of stay, including permits covered by EU law. A single permit combines a residence and a work permit, allowing its holder a brief period of unemployment as well, without losing their residence. It is the most common employment residence permit, but there are others.

Malta issued over 326,000 single permits between 2015 and 2024. Their number ballooned 11 times over the period, reaching 67,392, up from 5,970 issued in 2015.

Even during the pandemic, the number of such permits dipped very slightly, and peaked in 2023 at just over 70 thousand. The numbers include renewed permits.

Unlike countries like Lithuania or Portugal, Malta is not actively using this system for short-term, seasonal work. Nearly 9 in 10 single permit holders in Malta are there longer-term – for 12 months or more.

The number of longer-term permit holders has been soaring since 2018, consistent with the government’s policy changes that have made the recruitment of non-EU nationals easier since 2017.

Source: Eurostat

Immigration data shows how non-EU citizens overtook EU citizens. The share of EU citizens among immigrants (for any reason) further shrank during the post-pandemic recovery.

Source: Eurostat. Note: EU countries include the UK until 2020

From 2021, UK citizens need a work permit in Malta. After a post-pandemic growth, their number has been declining, with 203 new British workers in 2024.

By 2024, employment had become the main gateway into Malta for non-EU nationals, accounting for half of all new arrivals, with education representing a further quarter. 

The figures below break down residence permits by purpose.

Employment

Over 119,200 first residence permits for employment purposes were issued between 2015 and 2024. This is not the same as the number of workers, as some may have left or changed their residence status.

Indian nationals received the most permits, a fifth of the total issued, followed by Nepalese, Filipino, Serbian and Colombian citizens.

Several of these nationalities are also among Malta’s most deported.

In 2024, the number of first permits was as follows.

Source: Eurostat

Top nationalities in 2015-2024

Source: Eurostat

Highly qualified individuals can obtain an EU Blue Card and reside in Malta with it. 

Between 2015 and 2024, Malta issued only 27 new permits on this basis: Russians, Americans and Indians received three cards each.

Education

Between 2015 and 2024, a total of 40,180 residence permits were issued for educational purposes, with Indians (7,898 permits) and Colombians (7,239 permits) topping the list. 

In 2015-2016, only a handful of Indians came to study in Malta, but the number shot up to hundreds in 2017 and nearly tripled between 2022 and 2023.

Hundreds of Colombians had been coming to study in Malta already in 2015-2016, but new arrivals first exceeded 1,000 in 2022.

Top nationalities of residence permit recipients for education

Source: Eurostat

Family

Residence for family reasons is a separate status. The number of such first permits peaked in 2023 at over 3,000. Between 2015 and 2024, the main nationalities receiving these permits were as follows.

Main nationalities of permit recipients residing for family reasons

Source: Eurostat

Most new recipients of family permits joined another non-EU citizen already living in Malta. There were almost 2,600 in 2024, with 537 non-EU citizens joining an EU citizen living in Malta (the most common nationality among these is British).

Other reasons

Residence permits can also be issued for other reasons, which include financially independent retired persons, non-asylum discretionary permissions to stay, and diplomats. Eurostat also collects data on residents with international protection statuses (refugee status and subsidiary protection).

In Greece and Italy, over half of first-time resident permit holders in 2024 applied for one of these reasons, but in Malta, the share was under 16%. 

In 2015, the share of employees and people applying for other reasons (including retirement) was about equal, but employment has since overshadowed this other category.

Source: Eurostat. Note: the drop in employment-based residence permits likely reflects changes in the Temporary Work Agencies legislation.

In 2020, when Brexit changed the status of UK citizens, making them third-country nationals, it was estimated that around 8,000 retired Brits were living in Malta. 

The number of first permits for other reasons (including retirement) has recovered after a pandemic dip and soared in 2023 and 2024, reaching nearly 4,700.

In 2024, 4,073 residence permits were issued by Identita through the Malta Permanent Residence Programme (MPRP), the Malta Residency and Visa Programme (MRVP), and the Nomad scheme for digital nomads (the latter accounted for 1,031 of this number).

Eurostat data also contains statistics on ‘residence’ as a reason. China and Russia top the list of over 11,400 recipients between 2015 and 2024.

Top nationalities with ‘residence’ as a reason for permit

Source: Eurostat

Meanwhile, a total of 5,242 people received refugee status or subsidiary protection between 2015 and 2024, with the top nationalities being Syria and Libya. Contrary to leading politicians’ claims, the contribution of asylum seekers and refugees to Malta’s rapid population growth is minimal.

Asylum applications in Malta have been in steep decline, with the government praising this trend amid increased deportations. In 2025, Amphora Media reported on pushbacks to Libya to decrease arrivals.

In totality, this significant shift in migration policy, geared towards imported labour from non-EU countries, is reshaping towns and neighbourhoods as explored in Amphora Media’s Landscapes of Change investigation.

By Joanna Demarco

Updated with a comment from Komunità Malta agency.

Alexander Kuksov, a Maltese passport holder and the brother of Semen Kuksov, is wanted by the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency. He is suspected of ‘proceeds of crime offences’ in relation to an operation investigating a Russian ‘billion-dollar money laundering network’.

Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) this month announced charges against Alexander Kuksov, 23, putting him on its “most wanted” list. The NCA alleged he was “involved with an organised crime group responsible for the transfer and movement of multi-millions of pounds of criminal cash”. The details have been revealed in a joint investigation between Amphora Media, OCCRP, and Times of Malta.

The agency lists the offences as including “entering into or being concerned in the acquisition, retention, use or control or criminal property [sic], in this case, cash.”

Amphora Media, OCCRP and Times of Malta previously revealed that Alexander Kuksov’s brother, Semen, was stripped of his Maltese citizenship in October last year, following his five-year sentence. Semen, 25, was convicted in the U.K. of involvement in a group the NCA called a “professional banking service for criminals across the world.” 

The brothers, together with their father Vladimir Anatolyevich Kuksov, appear on a list of people granted citizenship in 2022 by Malta. The Kuksovs appear to have been given Maltese citizenship just weeks before Russians were excluded from passport sales to wealthy investors in the wake of the Kremlin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

In July 2022 – about six months after receiving his Maltese citizenship – Semen began managing “couriers to collect criminal money and deliver the laundered money overseas,” according to a statement by the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service.

The NCA now alleges that Alexander Kusksov was also involved in the criminal money laundering operation.

Lawyers for the elder Kuksov told OCCRP in 2024 that he had “no comment to make but notes that he and his adult son have lived separate lives for some years.” 

Vladimir Kuksov did not respond to a request for comment about the new allegations against his younger son, Alexander, whose whereabouts are unknown.

The Kuksovs received Maltese passports through a controversial citizenship-by-investment program. The so-called “golden passport” scheme was eliminated this year, following a damning judgement by the Court of Justice of the European Union. 

The Komunità Malta Agency, which oversaw the citizenship-by-investment programme, responded by saying, “We can confirm that the name of the person in question has come to the attention of the national authorities, and we shall be following any developments in this case closely.”

Under Maltese law, passports can be revoked if an applicant is sentenced within seven years of becoming a citizen to a jail term of a year or longer.

The charges announced by the NCA against Alexander have not been tried in court, and the money laundering allegations against him are not proven.

When the NCA announced its “Operation Destabilise” investigation in December 2024, it said the money laundering bust was its biggest in a decade, OCCRP reported at the time. The agency said the ring run out of Moscow and Dubai had been moving billions in cryptocurrency and hard cash for criminal operations, ranging from Russian ransomware attacks to street-level drug deals in the U.K.

Several alleged members of the network were sanctioned, and the NCA said it had arrested 84 people. They included Semen Kuksov, who later pleaded guilty to laundering more than $15 million of “criminally obtained cash,” according to the UK prosecution service.

The operation uncovered a complex scheme in which the networks collect funds in one country and make the equivalent value available in another, often by swapping cryptocurrency for cash. The crime agency stated that the investigation exposed and disrupted Russian money laundering networks that support crime worldwide.

The Malta Police Force did not respond to a request for comment on the U.K. case against Alexander or whether it was investigating the allegations against him.

Previous reporting by Amphora Media had also highlighted the lag between the government initiating the passport revocation process and the citizenship being officially revoked.

Malta eliminated its citizenship-by-investment programme earlier this year following a damning judgement by the Court of Justice of the European Union, bringing anend to a long-winded saga.

Malta had tried to defend the scheme, claiming that it is being unfairly targeted despite similar schemes existing in other countries – a false claim. It has now expanded a discretionary citizenship scheme for individuals of ‘exceptional merit.

• Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the EU’s flagship funding stream for farms, mainly benefits road building, wineries, the poultry sector and Project Green in Malta;
• Project Green was the largest single beneficiary of the  €166 million fund, receiving €15.8 million, with no clear links to farming.
• Over €1.2 million went to Infrastructure Malta road-building projects.
• The authority claims it benefited over 308,508 persons from the ‘rural population’, which is more than half of Malta’s population, and dwarfs the number of registered farmers.
• Wine producers benefited from CAP’s basic income and environmental measures.
• Montekristo, which ran unsanctioned operations until 2025, also benefited.
• Farmers’ representatives have repeatedly voiced their needs: help acquiring land, reduced bureaucracy, and market access. “I had to drive around the island on the day of the deadline to find the right office,” farmer Cane Vella said about bureaucracy.
• At an average of over €201,000 per hectare, the purchase price of arable land in Malta is by far the highest in the EU, while rental rates are far below the EU average at €91 per hectare.
• CAP distribution is questioned not only in Malta; reporting from Italy shows that the selection process disadvantages small farmers who market products locally, even though small farms were historically dominant in Italy.

This investigation is part of Senza Segnale, a collaborative project. Together with Facta, Amphora Media reviewed who benefits the most from CAP and who is left out.

In Malta, most EU farm subsidies do not reach farmers. Data shows a large proportion went to roads and infrastructure investments. Wineries, the poultry sector and even Project Green scored big.

An analysis by Amphora Media of data published by fondi.eu and the Agriculture and Rural Payments Agency (ARPA) indicates that, since 2023, the majority of funds under the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) have been captured by government bodies, while individual farmers have received a much smaller share.

“There is an office in Ta’ Qali with fifty farmers sitting half a day waiting,” farmer Cane Vella says of applying for a young farmer subsidy. “When you get inside, it’s very rushed.”

When the European Commission approved Malta’s CAP plan in 2022, Agriculture Minister Anton Refalo said that European Funds “will continue to assist all workers in this field.”

“The EU scheme is straightforward, but land registration is not,” Vella says. “There is no handbook.” Farmers’ representatives echoed the lack of coordination and strategic vision among government entities.

How does the EU fund Maltese farming?

The CAP is one of the 19 EU funding streams implemented by the government. It is financed through the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD).

In Malta, the Funds and Programmes Division within the Ministry for the European Funds oversees CAP funds as the managing authority. Applications and payments are processed by the ARPA. 

CAP goals include supporting farmers to help them “make a reasonable living”, sustainable management of natural resources, and keeping the rural economy “alive” by promoting jobs in farming, agri-food industries and associated sectors. 

Between 2023 and 2027, Malta will distribute a total of €166 million (EU funds and Maltese co-financing). 

Pillar 1: direct payments to farmers

Pillar 1 consists primarily of a direct income supplement for farmers to ensure their income stability and to recognise other benefits, including their role in caring for the countryside. This is entirely EU-funded.

Across the EU, nearly two-thirds of CAP funds are paid out this way. Between 2023 and 2027, nearly €43 million has been allocated to these direct payments in Malta.

Basic income support is evenly distributed, with the top 10 recipients sharing around 2% of the pot. The largest beneficiaries, Meridiana and Marsovin wineries, received over €26,500 between them.

Pillar 2: rural development and investments

In Malta, the first pillar is dwarfed by Pillar 2, which funds rural development measures including infrastructure, training schemes, and other investments.

Here, unlike Pillar 1, national governments co-finance and select projects under a national programme.

In Malta, EU funding for Pillar 2 is set at nearly €100 million for the funding period (around €76 million in EU funds and more than €41 million in national contribution).

Malta’s Government is the Major Winner

The published list of Pillar 2-funded projects shows that government bodies were the substantial beneficiaries of CAP funds:

• Around €40 million in EU funding, or 65% of allocated Pillar 2 funds, went to the central government.
• If entities like the Public Abattoir and the University of Malta, a public university, are included, the public sector’s share rises to nearly €42 million in EU funding, or 68% of Pillar 2.
• In contrast, farmers were collectively allocated almost €14 million in EU funds from this (rural development) pot. 

ARPA’s data shows that in 2023-2024, public sector entities accounted for the largest share of total funds disbursed.

The Ministry for Gozo and Planning received funding from three measures, the largest payment being for Investments in physical assets – over €986,000.

‘Local’ Funds for Project Green

The largest share of EU rural development funds went to support region-based local action groups, which together were allocated over €20 million to projects worth around €25 million.

Project Green, a centralised government agency, was the single largest CAP beneficiary, receiving €15.8 million, more than any individual local action group, which received some €1.4 million each, despite guidelines stating it is intended for non-profit local action groups.

Project Green’s CAP funds have been used to clean up Wied Għajn Riħana, remove illegally dumped waste, and support ‘afforestation’.

Project Green and ARPA did not respond to questions.

Read more about the workings of Project Green

Water Upgrades: Useful, But Not for All

The second-largest chunk of EU funds, €14.8 million, went to Water Services Corporation (WSC) for “Upgrading The Production Capacity of Reclaimed Water in Gozo and Malta North”.

In 2024, WSC distributed 1.5 million cubic meters of New Water: 0.35 million in Gozo, 0.77 million in Mellieha, and 0.37 million in Marsaskala. WSC reports that more than 1,800 registered users of the water supply

“The issue is that it is very unreliable. Sometimes there’s water, sometimes there’s no water,” Malcolm Borg of Għaqda Bdiewa Attivi, a farmers’ organisation, told Amphora Media.

“Not all farmers get this new water,” he continued. “This is causing a bit of unfair competition.”

In an interview with TVM, a farmer who lacked access to recycled water said he spent at least €4,000 per year irrigating his land.

A farm map by Friends of the Earth Malta shows a high number of farms in Rabat (Malta), Attard, Zebbug (Malta), and other areas that are not covered by New Water dispensers.

The Western district, for example, had the largest number of agricultural holdings (as of 2020), yet it is not served by recycled water.

In a government consultation, one part-time farmer wrote that a recycled water connection he applied for “never worked” and remained out of service for nearly a year.

Road building takes over a million euros in CAP

Published data show that Infrastructure Malta was allocated over €1.2 million to “improve accessibility to farmland”.

For 2023, ARPA reported that 308,508 persons benefited from this as part of the “rural population”. This is more than half of Malta’s population, and far surpasses the number of registered farmers.

“Farmers sometimes complain that their road is not [great], but it is very low on the priority list of farmers,” Malcom Borg told Amphora Media.

“Agricultural fields are being used for recreational purposes – those people want good vehicle access to rural areas,” he claimed.

“Improvement in rural roads was an investment that was long overdue. But there are other pressing matters that need more attention and are not necessarily solved through funding, but through more organised public administration,” comments Jeanette Borg, who has founded and runs the Malta Youth in Agriculture Foundation for young farmers.

The organisation she leads has been active in policy dialogue.

In October, it brought together farmers, students, and tech industry representatives to develop ideas for tackling land access and water resilience, among other issues.

One of the key discussions centred around the question “Why are farmers often forced to choose short-term survival over long-term investments such as training and marketing?”

“We’re an arid country. It’s getting worse, so I would prioritise building reservoirs and research about pest control,” Jeanette Borg said. “Farmers face many stumbling blocks by the Planning Authority in building reservoirs, and we do not even have a national lab that can test for pesticide residues.”

Borg also co-authored a study on young farmers. It showed that the main challenges they identified were resources, market issues, and a lack of assistance from authorities.

She is adamant that Malta must fix its food production system before trying to entice young people to become farmers.

The Malta Food Agency and the Ministry for Gozo and Planning emerged among other top CAP Pillar 2 beneficiaries, as did AgriConnect, an advisory service for farmers.

Emanuel Ciappara, a chicken-farm operator, was the only farmer to make the list of top 10 beneficiaries of Pillar 2 schemes.

“My clients are already benefitting from the funding received through the latest machinery and innovations in the poultry sector and are currently enlarging the production capacity to meet the demand for local poultry that is a staple for a healthy diet,” a lawyer representing Ciappara said in response to Amphora’s questions about the grant awarded.

CAP funding is at odds with farmers’ needs

Farmers’ representatives say the most urgently needed interventions are elsewhere. Unaffordable land, overexploited aquifers, competition and complicated bureaucracy are acute pressures.

Unaffordable Land:

Eurostat shows that, at over €201,000 per hectare on average, the purchase price of arable land in Malta is by far the highest in the EU, although renting land is well below the EU average and cheaper than in most countries, at €91 per hectare.

“In Malta, one of the smallest countries in the world, land comes at a premium, and access to land is very limited. So if you have a new farmer, it’s almost impossible to enter the sector because they don’t have access to land and water,” Malcolm Borg says.

Bureaucracy:

“I’m afraid that the applications are very complicated, and most farmers would not have the knowledge of how to fill these in,” Jeanette Borg told Amphora Media.

“There are two major departments or entities that are stumbling blocks: the Lands Authority and Planning Authority.”

Approximately half of the total declared land and of used agrarian land is rented from the government and, according to Malcolm Borg, “is managed disastrously”.

Jeanette Borg agrees. “The Lands [Authority] is not organised, and whenever farmers go to change the tenureship, it’s a nightmare,” she told Amphora.

“I had to drive around the island on the day of the deadline to find the right office,” farmer Cane Vella remembers about his experience applying for a subsidy.

Lands Authority and the Ministry for European Funds and the Implementation of the Electoral Programme did not reply to Amphora’s questions.

Local farmers face significant competition from foreign exports:

Malta relies heavily on agri-food imports from other EU countries, exporting very little. Its agri-food trade with non-EU countries, including the UK, is more balanced.

Malta buys at least €155.6 million worth of agricultural produce from Italy, its top importer of animal and vegetable products, accounting for nearly a quarter of all imports.

However, research by Facta, our partners in this investigation, shows that small Italian farms struggle equally with access to land and credit, as the CAP system favours economies of scale.

Small and local Italian farms also disproportionately suffer from ‘informatisation’ of agriculture – having to submit indicators to relevant authorities for monitoring, Italian wine researcher Alessandra Biondi Bartolini told Facta.

“Those operating in disadvantaged or remote areas often lack a reliable internet connection, which becomes a major obstacle: these are people who have to get off the tractor and go into an office, and time is scarce,” she explained. Facta also notes that farmers cannot apply for subsidies directly – they must use consultants, who take a cut.

Read our partners’ stories in Italian: by Facta and by IRPI Media

How are the subsidies reaching farmers?

Large farm projects (worth over €30,000) accounted for the third-largest share of EU CAP funds in Malta, benefiting 104 farmers, with average projects below €120,000.

A €1.95 million scheme supported 393 farmers with small on-farm investments, averaging €4,961 each, for equipment and upgrades.

To apply for support, farmers must show they can cover the remaining 40% of costs, either with their own funds or a bank loan.

Ensuring that expenses are eligible is a challenge, says Cane Vella, as farm expenses are diverse and sometimes unexpected.

“Engine failures. Implements breaking. Pump failures. Rats eating pipes. Hailstorm destroying crops. These are just a few common occurrences,” he lists these unexpected costs.

“Farmers say: Don’t make orders before the subsidy is in your bank account,” he says.

Who benefits most: private operators and CAP funding

The list of private individuals benefiting from subsidies is published without identifiers, making their areas of activity difficult to verify.

Among the largest 2023-2024 beneficiaries that applied as legal persons were:

When asked to explain why an event caterer and a communications company received agricultural subsidies, ARPA promised to respond. Weeks later, its reply was still not ready.

Animal products get a strong focus in CAP

The choice of which sectors CAP supports has received international criticism.

“The CAP has always favoured intensive agricultural species like cereals, corn, etc, along with livestock. It has never been a tool in favour of maintaining small multifunctional farms, nor of the agro-ecological transition,” says Italian agronomist Riccardo Bocci.

In terms of production value at basic prices, vegetables and horticulture (growing garden plants) in Malta account for by far the highest share, a third (33%) of all output value. They are followed by milk (20%), eggs (12%) and poultry (10%).

Jeanette Borg and colleagues’ study found a strong interest in fruit and vegetable farming among young farmers: a third of those surveyed grow fruit and vegetables, although many also raise cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs.

Malta’s CAP subsidies show a strong focus on animal products.

This is not unique to Malta and has been criticised by four major environmental networks in a joint report, where they argued against the use of CAP funds for “on measures that encourage large-scale unsustainable farming”, notably livestock, across the EU.

Chicken farmer Emanuel Ciappara is the private farmer to be allocated more than €1 million in CAP funds during the current financing period. He is also the largest beneficiary of the Maltese CAP’s “On-Farm Productive Investments”. 

His project, an “Investment in new state-of-the-art broiler production facilities and ancillary machinery”, is estimated to cost over €2 million out of an indicative budget of €10 million for this measure.

A lawyer representing Ciappara and his companies said he is “a self-employed poultry breeder and he personally operates a poultry farm, breeding poultry, in his own personal name, separately and distinctly from [a separate beneficiary] C & K Ciappara & Sons Limited” – the funds received are “to upgrade and expand his poultry breeding operations”.

The dairy sector is considered to be strategically important to Malta, maintaining stable milk production since Malta joined the EU despite the number of raw milk suppliers shrinking in half between 2003 and 2019. 

Malta Dairy Products, the owner of the Benna brand and a ‘quasi-monopoly’ of fresh milk, was allocated over €450,000 in EU subsidies during the current period.

Data provided by ARPA shows that over the current period, 223 eligible applications from dairy farms, 226 from sheep farms, 85 from beef farms and 29 under a livestock measure were received.

Wines benefit from CAP’s environmental measures

Vineyards are the largest recipients of funds and measures designed to pay farmers directly for environmentally beneficial practices, a part of CAP’s focus.

According to ARPA’s data for the current funding period, no farmer applied under the biodegradable mulch measure, only eight applied under the biodiversity scheme, 124 applied under the integrated pest management scheme, and 11 applied under the organic farming scheme.

Montekristo benefits from CAP despite irregularities

One of the largest recipients is Montekristo Vineyards Ltd, established in 2003, and owned and run by Carmel (known as Charles) and Paul Polidano. 

Montekristo received agricultural subsidies in 2023 and 2024, after the Planning Authority had issued enforcement notices for illegal building in an agricultural area on this site, which also features a concrete plant and a batching plant.

Charles Polidano’s 2009 and 2010 applications to sanction Montekristo’s family park, including an illegal zoo and an extension of its winery, in Siggiewi, were approved by the Planning Authority in July 2025 despite pending court cases concerning the site.

Wine making on the site can be traced to 2005, when the group obtained permission to convert a pig farm into a winery and vineyard, and later to expand it. However, case files indicate that the area used for winemaking was to be limited.

Today, Montekristo is identified as one of Malta’s main wine producers. In 2014, the Times of Malta reported that it had already received agricultural subsidies intended for farmers in disadvantaged areas. 

Montekristo group did not respond to repeated attempts to reach it for comment.

What the people wanted

The latest EU regulation on CAP acknowledges that “Member States should have the option to design a specific intervention for small farmers replacing the other direct payments interventions”.

Yet, international NGOs have noted that “the EU’s CAP has largely failed several of its objectives. It failed farmers, who continue to leave the sector en masse and are hit by one crisis after another. It also failed to address environmental issues, and in some cases even exacerbated them”.

A survey among Maltese residents found that nearly all consider agriculture important for the future, yet an overwhelming majority would sacrifice EU agriculture’s competitiveness to fight climate change.

Nearly a third — more than the EU average — hold farmers responsible for protecting the environment, and half are ready to pay more for climate-friendly products.

Against this backdrop of criticism, public concern and policy reform, the debate over CAP’s future remains far from settled. While many farmers continue to struggle financially, expectations of the sector — particularly on climate and environmental protection — are only increasing.

“Farmers are living in economic poverty, but are rich in other ways,” Cane Vella concludes.

This investigation is part of Senza Segnale, a collaborative project that reconnects news deserts in the Mediterranean.

Senza Segnale is a project by Amphora Media and IrpiMedia, in collaboration with Fada, Facta, Indip, Infonodes, Centro di Giornalismo Permanente, in cooperation with the Allianz Foundation.

Giulia Bonelli (Facta) contributed reporting. Rui Baros contributed data scraping.

This is one of two stories about two vastly different Mediterranean communities struggling with overtourism produced through the collaborative project Senza Segnale, involving journalists from Malta and Italy. One focuses on a lively city and tourist destination – Palermo – but this one is about my suburban hometown of Swieqi, a place with little to offer tourists yet deeply impacted by tourism nevertheless. Published in collaboration with Newsbook.

The Suburbanites’ Protest

A few dozen people who gathered in Swieqi on the last Sunday of August ensured that Malta joined tourist destinations across southern Europe in protesting against overtourism last year, though the choice of venue may seem strange to outside eyes.

Swieqi, which emerged as a fast-growing suburb of neighbouring St Julians in the 1960s, is far from a tourist destination. Home to over 15,000 people, it has no beaches, no notable attractions, few venues for socialising. Two hotels were torn down years ago, and the only collective accommodation left are an aparthotel and two guesthouses with around 80 rooms among them, with planning policies that effectively preclude the development of new ones.

Calling Swieqi boring is not unreasonable, but it is centrally located on a small island and is widely considered a desirable place to live. And boring means quiet; or at least it used to.

The Holiday Flat Loophole

But Swieqi’s restrictions on touristic development have been rendered worthless by a phenomenon that has transformed tourism: a sharp rise in holiday rentals, fuelled by rise of Airbnb and other online platforms making them readily accessible to travellers across globe.

It is a phenomenon that caught authorities unprepared, as Swieqi itself shows: while it is mostly designated as a “residential priority area” in which tourist accommodation is prohibited, holiday rentals are still treated as ordinary residences under Maltese planning law.

Any home can thus be turned into licensed “holiday premises,” circumventing policies drawn up before a flood of tourist rentals could have been foreseen.

A complex of holiday flats on Swieqi Road is but one example of this anomaly: it was built after a planned guesthouse was refused a permit as it was deemed unsuited to a residential area.

This road has become a hotspot for holiday rentals as it leads straight to Malta’s main nightlife district of Paceville: an underpass beneath the Regional Road, one of Malta’s main roads, is all that separates the two.

Many listings emphasise the proximity to Paceville: some do not even mention Swieqi at all.

Worse than Barcelona

Official statistics present an unenviable scenario for Malta and Swieqi: the proportion of tourist rentals is markedly higher than in the city notable for fighting back.

Barcelona, home to nearly 1.7 million people – roughly three times Malta’s population – had just over 10,000 licensed tourist flats in 2024, when its mayor confirmed they would be banned for good by 2029.

The number of licensed holiday premises in Malta reached 7,649 by the start of February, and Swieqi – home to 2.7% of the national population – hosts 5% of them, with 386 licensed premises providing 2,079 bed spaces.

Actual numbers may well be considerably higher when unlicensed premises are taken into account: an exercise carried out last summer identified 432 active Swieqi listings on Airbnb alone.

Malta thus has more than twice as many short-term rentals per capita – and Swieqi roughly four times as many – as Barcelona, despite national tourist numbers that still fall far short of what the city receives.

No Slow Season

Malta’s tourism numbers are growing rapidly, as is the case with many other Mediterranean destinations, facilitated by low-cost flights and holiday rentals which have helped make travel more accessible.

Tourist numbers had been stable for around two decades until the early 2010s, with Malta welcoming a little more than 1 million tourists a year, but have risen dramatically since.

Malta welcomed more than 2 million tourists in 2017, and the 3 million mark was surpassed in 2024, with 3.56 million travellers. That record was surpassed by November 2025, and the country may well have surpassed the 4 million mark by the end of the year: three times as many as it had received just 15 years prior.

Consequently, while tourism in Malta remains seasonal, peaking in summer, one cannot really speak of a “slow” season anymore.

No less than 200,000 people visited Malta in February 2025, in what is historically the slowest month of the year.

Given these figures, it is perhaps unsurprising that all Swieqi residents I spoke to suggested that the situation took a marked turn for the worse around a decade ago.

“It doesn’t end now: it’s slightly less intense, but it’s continuous,” Arnold Cassola, who organised the August protest in which he decried Swieqi’s transformation into “Paceville’s daytime dormitory,” explains. “You could plan around July and August before, but it’s not like that anymore.”

Noise disturbances are a regular complaint, whether through house parties from partygoers walking to or from their flat, often while drunk or intoxicated. This foot traffic often leads to other nuisances, including vandalism and the odd fight. Garbage is another chronic concern: the waste generated in tourist rentals is often brought out at inappropriate times, and often remains uncollected for days. 

The Council’s Crusade

Given the chance, Swieqi mayor Noel Muscat would likely follow Barcelona’s lead and ban short-term rentals outright: a proposal by the council he leads would effectively do so. But Maltese local councils have no authority to do anything of the sort on their own.

The lack of powers – limited since they were created in 1993, and reduced further over time – is an evident source of frustration for Muscat, not least since the local council bears the brunt of complaints it cannot directly address. Tourist accommodation licensing is under the Malta Tourism Authority, and local councils can no longer set waste collection schedules after a single national schedule was introduced.

What they can do is speak up, express their concerns and present proposals, and while the local council has done so, it is futile if the authorities prove unwilling to respond. This is laid bare by a document Muscat provides: a letter prepared for a meeting the council held with the minister for tourism a full decade ago, on February 2016.

In that letter, Muscat highlighted that the number of short-lets had “mushroomed” in Swieqi, causing its inhabitants stress “in the form of noise disturbances, sometimes vandalism and even cleanliness,” and pleaded for regulations that would make it possible to maintain order and address abuse.

But this plea went unheard, with Muscat observing that if short-lets were mushrooming then, “now they’re spreading like wildfire.”

It went a step further last year, presenting no fewer than 12 proposals, including requiring tourist rentals to be classified more accurately as commercial properties. The council also called for a moratorium on new licenses until carrying capacity studies are conducted and for strict limits to be set on the number of tourist rentals in every Maltese locality.

The Protest Organiser

Few people have lived in Swieqi as long as Cassola, an academic and veteran politician who presently chairs the political party Momentum: his family had moved to what was then a nascent suburb in 1972, when he was a teenager. He moved back to his late parents’ home a few years ago, after spending much of his life in a nearby apartment, a move which gives him some space from short-lets, in contrast to his former apartment.

But it’s still very close to Paceville, and his street sees considerable foot traffic accordingly.

Beyond countless incidents of drunk partygoers urinating at his doorstep, he’s had a car mirror broken no less than three times.

Through his Facebook page “Arnold’s Citizen Watch,” he regularly airs the grievances of people from around the country, so it is perhaps unsurprising that he is involved in his hometown’s struggle against overtourism.

His efforts have included launching a parliamentary petition calling for urgent action on the “misuse of tourist rentals in residential areas,” which attracted 2,373 signatures, but he felt a protest was necessary as summer arrived and tempers flared.

In part, Cassola was inspired by growing community activism in Swieqi and beyond: he made a point of inviting residents’ groups from other areas similarly bearing the brunt of overtourism. But the protest was also organised in response to growing anger and in a bid to pre-empt plans for more disruptive actions, which he feared would backfire, including a proposed protest which would have dumped rubbish bags outside the prime minister’s office to highlight Swieqi’s own garbage crisis.

The Former Minister Claiming Maladministration

Another prominent community voice which emerged in the summer was Evarist Bartolo, a government minister between 2013 and 2022 as part of the governing Labour Party and a Swieqi resident for over 30 years. A former journalist and lecturer in journalism – my thesis supervisor, as it happens – Bartolo has now drawn the curtain on his political career, but like Cassola, maintains an active presence on Facebook, regularly sharing his reflections. He readily endorsed the protest, and while was unable to attend it, prepared a message which was read out on his behalf.

As far as Swieqi residents are concerned, Bartolo and I can both count ourselves lucky: neither of us are particularly affected by holiday rentals, even though his home is closer to Paceville than mine. Still, he is regularly approached by fellow residents hoping he could be their voice, often Labour supporters in what is a stronghold of the Nationalist Party, which has enjoyed a strong majority at the council since its inception.

Bartolo has no compunction about calling out his former colleagues in government as the stories pour in. He is adamant that the authorities have been guilty of maladministration in managing tourist rentals, and has asked the Office of the Ombudsman to investigate accordingly.

As one example, he takes aim at the very structure of Malta’s tourism authority, which has the dual – and seemingly conflicting – role of regulating and promoting the tourism industry, with much of its budget funding the latter aim.

Bartolo observes that other tourist destinations have shown that it was possible to act decisively against overtourism: some may even have gone too far in their opinion. But in Malta, the authorities continued ignoring the issue at their peril.

“If I were them, I would worry about allowing an irresponsible sector to harm the reputation of tourism,” he insisted. “Because hostility to tourism will only increase.”

Suffering in Silence

A common thread emerges in my interviews with three of Swieqi’s most prominent political figures: a reluctance by many residents to go public with their concerns. Even August’s protest attracted a modest crowd of around 80 people, though that may in part reflect political bickering which ultimately saw the local council sit it out. Cassola hailed these numbers as a “very good result” nevertheless, noting that Swieqi was still unaccustomed to community activism.

Muscat, on his part, had highlighted that many residents were “suffering in silence,” and in September, the local council provided the community with another opportunity to speak up through a meeting with the community policing team responsible for the area. 

With dozens of people turning up, turnout was good as far as Maltese community meetings go, and the crowd had a lot to say. But it emerged that just eight police reports had been filed for tourism-related disturbances during the year.

“We know how serious the situation is,” Inspector Gabby Gatt, who manages the community police teams in Swieqi and a number of other localities, assured the residents present. “But we do not receive enough reports to substantiate it.”

As the meeting progressed, however, and as one resident after another spoke up, a clear pattern emerged: the resources the police could or wanted to allocate were nowhere near what residents were hoping for.

And an incident shared by Gatt highlighted that landlords have little incentive to ensure their guests are good neighbours: one informed about his rowdy guests celebrated that he could now claim their deposit.

Enter the Pressure Group

The community police were not alone in encouraging residents to file reports: the same message is emphasised in “Swieqi Pressure Group.” Though just a group chat on WhatsApp, as its moderators make clear, in a locality that lacks a residents’ association of its own it may come closest to filling that gap for now.

It was established only last May: Cassola had observed that this took place amid rising tempers.

Martin and Steve (not their real names) confirm as much when we meet, but Martin recounts that the direct trigger was an incident which occurred near his home: a male tourist who took a naked morning stroll, aggressively confronting a number of residents along the way. A photo of this incident made the rounds on social media and was even featured in local press: Martin witnessed it in person.

“Things were already bothering me, then there was this case… the very next day it was done,” he said.

The authorities did respond once the incident went viral, even if Martin was less than encourage by the outcome: a suspended sentence after the tourist admitted to charges including harassment and public indecency. This, he stressed, would have no bearing on someone who does not actually live in the country.

The two men firmly rejected the suggestion that the community’s issues centred around numerous low-level offences which could not be considered a police priority, despite the inconvenience they may cause.

“There is a perceived sense of threat within the community, especially among the elderly and the young,” Steve observes. “I won’t say that people are afraid to leave their homes all the time, but the fear is there.” 

Martin readily concurs, emphasising his fears about the safety of his two daughters, both in their twenties.

An Inadequate Response, By Design

The interview with ethe two men took place the day after the community police meeting, and confirmed that their suggested remedy had its limitations, as Steve found out when he reported a loud flat party keeping his family awake the night before his son took an exam.

“I go out, literally screaming, file a report, but they keep going,” he notes. “By the time the police arrive an hour later, they are knocked out, and there’s nothing to report.”

The meeting saw Cassola repeatedly challenge the police’s insistence on reports: they could and did act on their own initiative when they saw fit. He recalled another incident involving a naked tourist, one filmed riding a motorcycle through Malta’s streets and was later identified, prosecuted, and fined after the footage went viral.

Various residents made clear their reluctance to follow through with a report publicly, including by testifying in court: not least since it would mean facing off against the business interests behind the holiday rentals. Neither they nor Cassola swayed police from insisting on the necessity of doing so, however.

Bartolo viewed this insistence cynically, deeming it a deliberate tactic.

“They insist you must show up and testify deliberately, to make you give up,” he observes. “Why are we expecting ordinary individuals to step up? Why don’t the authorities do anything to strike a balance and protect the public?”

‘Collateral Damage’

In this context, the residents’ dealings – or lack thereof – with police and other authorities highlight that Swieqi’s struggles were not an issue of residents versus tourists, but of a community burdened by a business that often profited at their expense. The link between short-term rentals and Malta’s politically-influential construction industry is not missed by anyone I spoke to.

“The government is closing an eye… to let people turn a profit,” Martin muses. “And we are just collateral damage.”

He suggests a simple remedy – “if you’re not capable of handling your clients, close it down” – but it is not an approach the authorities are exactly known for where business interests are involved.

Muscat’s own assessment is that the state’s failings were not a matter of incompetence, but betrayed an unwillingness to act.

“You’re under pressure… and you have to stand up to it,” he notes. “But they give in.”

And as our interview draws to a close, he warns things can get much worse.

Profiteering Over Everything

“Developers have become dangerously strong, you have no idea,” he maintains. “They view us as mere ants, and they don’t know how to invest in anything else.” 

The present short-let craze was a natural consequence of this, the mayor maintains: they became the most profitable use of an apartment. Consequently, in a country where apartments are often sold before a permit is even issued, there are now projects that are not being advertised for sale at all, including a large apartment block being built a short distance away from the local council offices that could by itself increase Swieqi’s stock of licensed holiday rentals by nearly a third.

“Spain was exactly in the same situation Malta is in now before the 2008 crisis,” he observes. “The economy was thriving, but it was all built on property. And what do we invest in? Property, property, property, property…”

Bartolo expresses similar sentiments as he rails against an attitude that prioritises profiteering over all else, and warns that change is unlikely when Malta’s main political parties are financially dependent on businesses.

“The scales will always be tipped in favour of the donors,” he muses. And as Muscat had done, Bartolo warns this may have dire consequences down the line.

“I worry that we’re being very short-sighted, because we’ve always scraped through,” he observes. “So we remain on the brink.”

The Government Responds

With the interviews taking place as summer was drawing to a close, it was perhaps inevitable that they betrayed a general sense of pessimism about the future of the community.

“If the authorities fail to take proper steps, it will be more of the same,” Bartolo maintained. “And so far I’m not seeing any political will.”

The others shared similar sentiments amid expectations that the growth holiday rentals would remain unchecked, though Cassola did temper this pessimism as he hailed the fact that Swieqi residents were finally finding their voice.

And by the end of summer, their voice had reached its intended audience.

In September, the government picked Swieqi and Valletta for a pilot project which aimed to develop community solutions to the problems caused by overtourism. And in November, this was followed up by proposed regulations which would make it possible to restrict short-lets to designated areas and require tourist rentals to display a 24-hour contact number which aggrieved residents could complain to. 

A month-long public consultation finished in December, though the regulations are yet to become law, and the number of holiday rentals in Swieqi and in Malta has only grown since then.

A Hopeful Future?

The proposed regulations still fall considerably short of the local council’s demand, with no caps on numbers, no indication that existing rentals would be affected and no commitment that any designated zones would be drawn up. And in a country that has long struggled with enforcing regulations, their implementation still relies on the political will Bartolo failed to see among his former cabinet colleagues.

Bartolo’s response as I sought to find out whether the government’s gestures had given my interviewees new hopes was succinct: “The proof of the pudding is in the eating,”

Muscat was hopeful: “there is no reason why (the situation) should not improve… God forbid that it does not improve drastically.” But the mayor emphasises the need to do more, not least closing the planning loophole that enabled Swieqi’s transformation into Paceville’s dormitory and a capacity study, whilst warning that the challenge will be even greater this year.

The others do not share his optimism, with Cassola viewing the proposals cynically as “lip service to gain votes, since elections are approaching.” Any sign of progress, he maintains, could only be determined after the next election – which must take place by 2027 – takes place.

Steve and Martin, meanwhile, see little cause for celebration since even winter has not brought them peace: it’s still bad now, only better than summer.

Noise, disturbances, garbage accumulation and drug use continue unabated.

Neither are yet to see any political will to change things: “if there was, things would have moved in the right direction,” Steve muses, while Martin reiterates that the interest of those profiting at the community’s expense were still being put first.

This scepticism does not appear unwarranted, given that a previous proposal to require apartment owners to obtain approval from their condominium neighbours before licensing it as a holiday rentals was ditched early last year: tourism minister Ian Borg deemed it unfair on those who invested in short-lets. Instead, Borg pledged to enforce the rules to ensure neighbourly respect.

As Swieqi can attest, that proved to be a broken promise, one that casts a shadow on the latest pledges. But it also led to a community still struggling to define its identity to find its voice and be heard, across the political spectrum: the next step, perhaps, will be to ensure it is actually listened to.

This investigation is part of Senza Segnale, a collaborative project that reconnects news deserts in the Mediterranean.

Senza Segnale is a project by Amphora Media and IrpiMedia; in collaboration with Fada, Facta, Indip, Infonodes, Centro di Giornalismo Permanente; in cooperation with the Allianz Foundation.

A recent ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union strengthened players’ ability to recover online gambling losses across borders under their home laws, but stopped short of directly challenging Malta’s controversial legal protections for the iGaming industry under a legal amendment known as Bill 55.

“Online games of chance: a player may, as a general rule, rely on the law of his or her country of residence when bringing an action to establish liability in tort or delict on the part of the directors of a foreign provider that does not hold the required licence,” the court’s statement reads.

The judgment confirms that, as a general rule, players may rely on the law of their country of residence when bringing non-contractual claims linked to online gambling, even where the operator is established and licensed in another EU member state, such as Malta. 

But, more crucially, it does not touch Malta’s legal framework, notably Bill 55, which can shield gambling companies from enforcing foreign courts’ judgements. 

“The Court did not examine, question, or assess the validity of Malta’s regulatory framework,” Malta Gaming Authority’s spokesperson told Amphora Media.

Commenting on Amphora’s earlier findings about the way Malta’s laws protect gambling operators, lawyer Benedikt Quarch, who has represented numerous German and Austrian gamblers, has earlier explained to Amphora Media that his firm would bring “thousands of cases to Malta” once the EU courts declared the bill void.

What the Court decided: The case involving an operator in Malta

The EU court case began with an Austrian client who used a Maltese operator, Titanium Brace Marketing, which did not hold the licence required under Austrian law. 

According to the judgement, the Austrian player accumulated losses between November 2019 and April 2020.

The player decided to bring a case against the operator’s two directors before the Austrian courts, arguing that they are “jointly and severally liable for the fact that Titanium offered illegal games of chance in Austria”. The directors argued that not Austrian but Maltese law should apply.

The directors also argued that they should not be liable for the company’s offer of gambling services without a national licence. 

Filings at Malta Business Registry show that a Cypriot national and a Maltese national were appointed directors of the company in September 2019. In 2021, the Maltese director resigned and the Cypriot signed a document initiating the dissolution of the company, which is ongoing.

In 2024, the Austrian Supreme Court put questions to the EU Court of Justice to clarify whether the directors are liable and which law should apply.

According to the government of Austria, “cross-border supply of gambling activities is not allowed”. But Malta-based firms operate websites without licenses in some countries they target.

Gambling laws are not harmonised in the EU, and there is no obligation for authorities to recognise gambling licences from another EU country.

There is case law that repeatedly recognises the rights of EU countries to restrict the cross-border market of gaming services, but restrictions (such as more stringent criteria for a national licence) must be proven to be proportionate.

The top EU court ruled that “the damage sustained by the player is deemed to have occurred in the country in which that player resides”. In this case it’s Austria, so Austrian law should apply.

Moreover, failing to obtain a gambling license is a breach of a general law protecting the public, not an internal company management issue. 

This means it does not fall under the company law exception, which would be protecting the directors from liability. It remains for the Austrian courts to rule whether the directors are guilty, but this should be done under the law governing non-contractual obligations and not company law.

Bill 55’s fate is yet undecided

Although not directly addressed by the recent ruling, Bill 55 is also under EU scrutiny.

Under Bill 55, Maltese courts can “refuse recognition and, or enforcement” of any foreign judgment involving companies registered on the island, namely the gambling industry.

In an interview with iGaming Capital, lawyer Terrence Cassar explained that the relevant article introduced by Bill 55 “would only ever come into play at the point where a foreign judgment is presented for recognition and enforcement in Malta.” 

“At that stage, the Maltese legal position is that such a judgment would simply not be recognised,” he said.

MGA’s spokesperson also underscores the limited scope of the ruling:

“It is also important to emphasise that this judgment was strictly limited to the interpretation of the Rome II Regulation (Regulation 864/2007), which determines which country’s law applies in civil and commercial matters involving non-contractual claims.”

“The Court did not pronounce itself on the substance of the underlying player claim. It does not relate to Article 56A (formerly Bill 55), which addresses a different legal context and reflects Malta’s established public policy on gaming matters,” the spokesperson added.

Amphora Media analysed Maltese court cases since the adoption of Bill 55. We found 81 first-instance judgements involving gambling companies and 32 appeals that cited the relevant legislation.

Not all of these were court judgements about refunding gambling losses. The court issued interim judgements on many procedural requests, responding to challenges brought by either side – the gambler or the company – including garnishee orders and requests for recusal.

“In light of the narrow and technical nature of this judgment, Malta’s position vis-à-vis the player claims remains that operators licensed in Malta may continue to operate cross border where they have a justifiable legal reason to do so,” MGA’s spokesperson said. 

However, more rulings may be in the pipeline. 

In June last year, the European Commission also opened infringement proceedings against Malta “for failing to comply with its obligations under the Regulation on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgements (Regulation (EU) 1215/2012) in the area of gambling”.

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