On October 16th, Daphne Caruana Galizia was murdered as a result of her investigative journalism revealing that Malta had evolved into a mafia state https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/.
Known as the "one-woman Wikileaks", Caruana Galizia had tirelessly exposed corruption on the crime island for three decades, and she continued her work after receiving the first threats on her life in 1996. Two weeks prior to her death, Caruana Galizia had filed a complaint to police after receiving further threats to her safety.
Daphne was that most-feared creature of our contemporary world of corruption, a solitary decider.
Her final blog entry read: "There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate."
Her death changes everything.
Her life was not for nothing.
There are currently three primary leads in the investigation into the assassination of Caruana Galizia:
* Her final investigative project addressed a diesel smuggling operation between Libya and Italy orchestrated by Sicilian mafia. By personnel and evidence, this illicit trade is linked to former Maltese international footballer Darren Debono.
* A cigarette smuggling cartel based in Cyprus and Malta linked to senior Maltese politicians and businessmen that leaves many unanswered questions.
* The 'Ndrangheta had a number of their betting licenses revoked in Malta after Caruana Galizia's exposure of the infiltration of the Maltese gambling sector by Italian mafia.
Both the Sicilian mafia and the 'Ndrangheta are known for exhibiting their cowardice via massive car bombings - think Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in the former and see recent Maltese history for the latter.
In this post we are specifically going to focus on the third of these options as members of our extended network worked on the meta-analysis of bookmaker-based corruption in Malta.
However, it should be noted that numerous politicians, businessmen, mafia operatives, tax evaders and money launderers wanted this whistleblower dead and some threads of our narrative will expose such individuals for the financial terrorists that they are.
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Daphne Caruana Galizia was one of the lead journalists analysing the Panama Papers which revealed extensive offshore tax evasion by our global elite at just one offshore operation Mossack Fonseca. Among those exposed were numerous senior figures in Maltese business and politics including prime minister Joseph Muscat, his chief of staff Keith Schembri and former health and energy minister Konrad Mizzi. For example, Muscat's wife is the beneficial owner of a company in Panama and large sums of money were moved between there and the Aliyev proto-fascist state of Azerbaijan while senior members of the Labour Party had money hidden through a web of companies in Panama and trusts in New Zealand.
Caruana Galizia's final blog post focused on Schembri and the former leader of the opposition Simon Busuttil.
These leaders are responsible for the development of these gruesome conditions.
Sueddeutsche Zeitung: "Multinational companies are passing on profits to their Maltese subsidiaries, which then pretend to be doing business on the island. But in fact, all they do there is pay less tax ('letterbox companies'). According to calculations by the newspaper Malta Today, those European member states in which the profits were really generated lose 3.5 to 4 billion euros a year in taxes because of this system... Unconditional discretion and sedated bureaucracy: that is what protects the very special holiday paradises like Malta."
Malign and criminal interests have turned Malta into a mafia state...
... a mafia state tax haven within the EU.
It is a strange state of affairs when the EU offers subsidies to a member state which deprives other member states of tax revenues.
Much Italian mafia activity relating to money laundering has been exported to the island in recent years following numerous crackdowns by the authorities in Italy. There have been 15 mafia style assassinations and car bombings in the last decade prior to Caruana Galizia's murder.
The Maltese government has offered a one million euro reward and full protection for anybody with information regarding this murder although why any sane human being would trust the words of these state charlatans is another matter entirely. Matthew Caruana Galizia (one of Daphne's three sons) doesn't trust the police to properly investigate her death stating "... there has been a takedown of the rule of law here. There has been a capture of the state by corrupt and criminal corporations. The institutions do not work. There is a climate of impunity." Another son Paul adds that "if the government doesn't want to be investigated, it won't be investigated." The family have called for the resignations of the Prime Minister, the Senior Police Commissioner and the Attorney General.
Julian Assange and David Thake have also set up rewards for information leading to a conviction.
Aside from the heinous nature of this crime, Caruana Galizia's death should also serve as a warning to what is happening in numerous other EU countries where mafia are influencing the state.
In Sicily, Nino di Matteo has unearthed collusion between the Cosa Nostra and deep levels of the Italian state and, as a consequence, is under armed protection 24/7 as Tito Riina has announced a death sentence from the safety of his jail cell. Meanwhile Roberto Saviano, who spent a decade investigating Italian mafia, claims that the UK is the most corrupt country in the world. According to Saviano, the financial services industry in the City of London facilitates the system that backs up this claim and Football is Fixed's evidences of Deep State influenced systemic corruption in British football shares exactly the same template of corruption as that in the Square Mile of misery.
The mafia never kills non-mafiosi just for vendetta. There is always another aim - to eliminate a person who has discovered something that must not be discovered. When a mafia infects a state, it is still the state that orders the murders. But the mafia, above all, is an entity that wishes to exhibit power in place of the state.
A quote that we have utilised before from Sicilian magistrate Nino di Matteo sums up the situation: "We live in a mafia state - a state that, in order to preserve the status quo, has to remove whistleblowers who want justice. We want to know the reason for the silence of the mainstream media - why are they frightened to the degree they become accomplices in (and beneficiaries of) the corruption? We must rebel against this system and this mafia method."
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Malta has a population of 437,000 (smaller than the city of Stoke) and yet has over 500 betting operations housed on the island. The betting sector is worth 1.2 billion euros and represents 12% of GDP. Malta was the first country in Europe to ease the entry process for online gambling firms in 2004. According to Europol, the 'Ndrangheta uses this online betting hub for large scale money laundering related to their domination of the global cocaine trade (the 'Ndrangheta makes an estimated 26.4 billion euros from cocaine annually).
Caruana Galizia: "Money launderers are being forced out of Italy's gaming market because regulation there has become so tight in the fight against organised crime."
In June 2017, as a result of research by Caruana Galizia, 1128Bet had their license suspended due to Italian mafia infiltration.
Previously, several members of the 'Ndrangheta were arrested in Malta in 2015 and extradited to Italy because they were caught laundering money through remote gaming companies.
Betuniq and BetSolution4U had their licenses suspended on July 22nd 2015 having been undertaking money laundering in Malta for four years. But these suspensions were only due to the actions of Italian police and not any Maltese authority. Two billion euros of assets were seized from the 'Ndrangheta.
In transcripts of telephone conversations between two Camorra clans, Bastian Dalli (the criminal brother of former Malta Cabinet Minister and European Commissioner John Dalli) is described as "the brother of the Maltese Prime Minister" and is named as the Camorra contact for Malta - "he is the one you should contact to set up a gaming company in Malta for money laundering purposes". In Italy, 1500 betting shops, 82 online gambling sites, 60 other companies and quantities of real estate were seized as evidence of this mafia-led tax evasion.
John Dalli's henchman Iosif Galea, a former employee of the Lotteries and Gaming Authority (a precursor to the Malta Gaming Authority) was the key official for BetSolutions4U. When this scandal broke he left the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) for a comfortable position within government.
A regulator was responsible for the corruption rather than working against it.
In November 2009, Italian police were closing in on Bet1128 in the UK. This company was owned by ParadiseBet. The family of Vito Martiradonna, who was convicted of being affiliated to Sacra Corona Unita in 2007, had hidden assets by taking advantage of Malta's lax online gambling regulations. ParadiseBet successfully sold 1128Bet and 11 other assets to Malta-based CenturionBet for 10 million pounds - a figure that does not appear anywhere in ParadiseBet's accounts. Michele Martiradonna was the main shareholder in ParadiseBet and the sale of the assets left nothing in the UK for the police to seize (https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/04191516/officers).
Research by the Organised Crime and Corruption Research Project (OCCRP) showed that the Martiradonna family were linked to CenturionBet (and other related betting companies operating from the same Maltese address). CenturionBet's ownership moved repeatedly between different British Virgin Isles companies with the stated beneficial owner being Antonio Buontempo (a former employee of ParadiseBet).
In the summer of 2017, the licenses of CenturionBet and 1128Bet were finally suspended by the entirely inadequate MGA. Operation 'Jonny', an Italian anti-mafia sting carried out in May 2017, linked CenturionBet to the 'Ndrangheta who earned 1.3 million pounds over 18 months after the betting company allowed access to its systems to Kroton Games (another 'Ndrangheta company) who successfully laundered huge amounts of money via the structure.
Bet1128 were a rogue company from their formation in 2008 and the strategy from day one was money laundering and the refusal to honour winning wagers by punters (https://www.sportsbookreview.com/search/?q=bet1128 and https://www.sbo.net/scam-sportsbooks/bet1128-paradise-bet/).
The laissez faire approach of the MGA has attracted all the usual major European betting firms to the island including Ladbrokes and Betfair. A SIGMA (Summit in I-Gaming in Malta) press release in 2014 gushed over the "... strategic confluence of financial, legal, technological and cultural factors which successive administrations moulded over the years, and which ultimately tipped the odds in favour of gaming companies deciding to locate here [in Malta]".
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Time to focus a little bit more on Keith Schembri, the chief of staff to PM Joseph Muscat. Schembri's remote gaming interests allowed him to channel gaming profits into secret companies in tax havens.
In April 2016, the Australian Financial Review focused on Schembri's links with gaming companies (as well as his involvement in Camorra and Cosa Nostra-backed recycling and waste management in India and Dubai - a favoured money laundering structure). Schembri completed a full house by the benefits he gained from 'Ndrangheta control of betting on the island.
A chief of staff in any government should not engage in business interests at all let alone interests linked to all three primary Italian mafia entities.
Daphne Caruana Galizia's exposure of Schembri was backed up by the Financial Investigation and Analysis Unit (FIAU), a Maltese government agency, which as a result of this support was left without a director for seven months hence halting all money laundering investigations against senior members of both the main political parties on the island. Under its previous director, Manfred Galdes, the FIAU had closely investigated Schembri and his secret offshore dealings in the British Virgin Isles, Gibraltar, Cyprus and Panama, and bank accounts in other territories. The illicit trusts were used, among other things, to launder money received as kickbacks from Russian mafia to gain Maltese passports (at a cost of 650,000 euros fee to Maltese government plus 150,000 euros invested in government bonds and purchase of a property of minimum value 350,000 euros).
After Galdes resigned, purely by chance so did the Police Commissioner, the latter being replaced by a Muscat ally, Lawrence Cutajar.
Caruana Galizia: "... the chances that the police will do their duty in acting on the investigation results presented to them by the FIAU recede even further. At this point, it is safe to assume that there is a very high risk of the FIAU investigation report into the Prime Minister's chief of staff and Minister Konrad Mizzi, that is in the possession of the Police Commissioner, being destroyed or otherwise disposed of."
It should be noted that the FIAU is an investigatory body with no power to prosecute and is chaired by the Attorney General "who is in a conflicting position in his role as legal counsel to the government" which is under investigation. Whitewash.
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Claudio Antonelli and Gianluigi Nuzzi from their book 'Blood Ties: The Calabrian Mafia' interviewed former 'Ndrangheta member Pasquale Barreca about collusion between the Camorra, 'Ndrangheta, Cosa Nostra and the state: "... the most important point remains the union between the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta and the Sicilian mafia in sending out these signals [requesting dialogue with the state]. through interlocutors, including members of state organs, it is certainly possible to create the necessary mediation... In my day Cosa Nostra had far more power at the political level, without a doubt. Today that's no longer the case. The Calabrian bosses have found a way into the organs of government... the 'Ndrangheta has penetrated deep into the social, and even more the political, fabric, by consolidating the economic power it has gained."
Italian anti-mafia investigators are in Malta helping to uncover the truth behind the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia and organised crime links between Malta, Italy and, potentially, Libya are being explored. The online gambling, cigarette smuggling and illicit diesel rackets are the primary focuses of investigation.
Former Maltese international footballer Darren Debono (who played 52 times for his country) was arrested on Lampedusa relating to the diesel smuggling operation the day after Daphne Caruana Galizia's murder after having his phone tapped for two years by Italian authorities (http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/national/81734/italian_authorities_tapped_darren_debonos_phone_for_two_years_before_arrest#.Wfh3MFu0PIU) and (https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20171022/local/anti-mafia-squad-in-malta-italian-senator-excluded-from-delegation.660993).
Debono played against England in a fixed Friendly International in 2000 (an England squad including Michael Owen, Steve McManaman, Robbie Fowler, Martin Keown, Phil and Gary Neville, and managed by Kevin Keegan). England won 2-1 in a non-trying event with keeper Richard Wright giving away two penalties. Wright is represented, unsurprisingly, by the Stellar Agency.
The other avenue for the police relates to Silvio Debono (centre of the back row in the above photo) and the following three posts from Caruana Galizia's 'Running Commentary' blog give some cryptic background to this particular piece of Maltese corruption
a) https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2017/03/breakingsilvio-debono-panama-papers-company-investigation-maltas-tax-authorities/
b) https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2017/03/wouldnt-bother-libel-suits-lou-hardrock-silvio-think-cigarettes-cyprus/
c) https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2017/03/politicians-need-read/
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Daphne Caruana Galizia had proof that political, business and criminal elites are one and the same entity in much the same way as Football is Fixed would describe the systemic template undermining and corrupting British football - there are very senior members of government, rogue Deep State operators, mafia groups, tarnished or coerced individuals, certain businesses using mafia methods to garner market (and corruption) control, all interacting in an environment where the mainstream media actually helps to orchestrate the scam.
And all of these corrupted structures feed through to the sport itself.
Take Juventus.
On September 25th, Juventus club president Andrea Agnelli was banned for one year for selling tickets to hard-core ultras and admitted meeting Rocco Dominello (an 'Ndrangheta mafia man who has now been jailed for eight years). The revenue streams arising from the scalping of tickets went straight into Calabrian mafia coffers - the president of the Serie A champions profited a mafia entity.
Less than a month later, Juventus were proud to announce a regional sponsorship deal with SE Asian online betting firm F66.com.
And all this after the incredibly suspicious betting patterns linked to Juve's alleged underperformance in the Champions League Final against Real Madrid.
Or take ################ an English team who, already under external rogue ownership, were sold to a Chinese entity operating through Malta with no company website and seemingly no history for any of the individuals involved. And, interestingly, the UK broadsheet that reported these links altered the article with no addenda at the conclusion - the paper withdrew the news and turned it into fake.
Why would a UK establishment newspaper do this thing?
Or take the fixed Malta versus England friendly.
These holistic structures are becoming a geopolitical football norm - the Albanian mafia influencing Austrian football (according to our research and in the opinion of a senior former FIFA man), Russians controlling the football in Cyprus and a whole array of bookmakers scrambling for the ultimate control of markets via rogue referees and players around the continent.
Football club owners.
Rogue footballers.
Mafia entities..
Money laundering.
Matchfixing events.
Online betting companies.
Links between Malta, Gibraltar, Italy and the UK.
Football.
Mafia.
Betting.
Alain Badiou: "For as Saint-Just asks: 'What do those who want neither Virtue nor Terror want?' His answer is well known: they want corruption."
The gambling and money laundering matrices of the UK and Malta want Terror and Corruption.
May the astonishing Daphne Caruana Galizia rest in a deserved peace and may her murderer(s) be brought to swift justice.
If her killer(s) have not been arrested by the time our forthcoming book is published, 25% of all profits will be added to Julian Assange's fund.
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© Football is Fixed 2006-2017
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