Our research over the last quarter of a century has always revealed one infrastructural reality in criminal states - whatever the holistic of the corruption, oil, drugs, arms, tax evasion, financial market abuses, the criminalities ALWAYS spread over to matchfixing and corruption in football.
Fraud forensics of the global betting markets reveal that systemic matchfixing of Malta international football matches began after Joseph Muscat was made Prime Minister in 2013.
This systemic structure is robust and reveals an inner core of three bookmakers and a penumbra of other market operatives who understand where the matchfixing information resides.
As shown below, Maltese government links with 'Ndrangheta over the betting sector on the island are widespread with officials oscillating between business, mafia and government with impunity.
Investigative journalists are digging deep into these state mafia structures and, when they unearth truths that cannot be made public, they pay the ultimate price as discovered by Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta last October and Jan Kuciak and his girlfriend Martina Kusnirova in Slovakia in February this year.
We owe it these two brave journalists to expose their governments and the associated crime links for what they truly are...
... a representation of mafia states within the EU.
Malta
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, employs 9,000 people and represents 12% of GDP. The gaming sector saw growth of 11.6% in 2017.
Malta was the first country in Europe to ease the entry process for online gambling firms in 2004.
According to Europol, the 'Ndrangheta uses online bookmakers in the country 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).
The laissez faire approach of the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) has attracted the very worst sorts of bookmaker to the island. 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]".
Muscat
Systemic matchfixing of Malta international football matches was instigated shortly after Joseph Muscat became Maltese Prime Minister in March 2013.
Linkages were made initially with Bookmaker A after a friendly game between Gibraltar and Malta in June 2014 before being superseded by arrangements orchestrated via Azerbaijan to bookmakers B and C (based in the Philippines and Gibraltar). A third Maltese-based bookmaker (Bookmaker D) was added to this cartel controlling the matchfixing of Malta's games.
This new cartel was established following a Euro 2016 Qualifier between Azerbaijan and Malta in March 2015. Bookmaker A were then cut out of the deal.
Out of 32 international matches since the original association with Bookmaker A, only four haven't been matchfixing events - the other 28 matches have all been fixed.
Prior to Muscat becoming Prime Minister, there was no evidence of systemic matchfixing in Malta games although certain matches against 'friendly' nations were corrupted e.g. the game against England in 2000 which was internally corrupted by UK-based soccer agents.
All market professionals are aware of this systemic structure.
The information feeds through the primary bookmaking mafia to derivative bookies who piggy-back the corruption for financial gain.
Although B from Philippines, C from Gibraltar and D from Malta orchestrate the matchfixing, other firms in Britain, Gibraltar, SE Asia demonstrate their knowledge of the matchfixing via their market positions.
Time to introduce 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.
Daphne 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.
Mafia
"Mafia organisations were the first western businesses to develop long-term relationships with communist regimes and used them to gain a foothold in the east. Although they could not buy property during communist rule, the mafia could rely on two other things: political corruption, to facilitate their illegal traffic, and a near monopoly on the black market in western goods illegally smuggled into eastern bloc countries" - Roberto Saviano
This power only increased post-1989.
Bookmaker D, for example, ran slots and casinos in eastern Europe but, from 1986 onwards, the 'Ndrangheta moved in imposing huge losses leading to an eventual liquidation of all operations in the east in 1992.
'Ndrangheta mafia have also taken over swathes of the bookmaking fraternity in Malta for money laundering purposes 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 Daphne Caruana Galizia's murder.
Daphne 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."
The 'Ndrangheta had a number of their betting licences revoked in Malta after Caruana Galizia's exposure of the infiltration of the Maltese gambling sector by Italian mafia.
In June 2017, as a result of research by Caruana Galizia, 1128Bet had their licence 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 licences 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 was given 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.
In the summer of 2017, the licences of CenturionBet and 1128Bet were finally suspended by the entirely inadequate MGA, nearly a decade after they had started money laundering operations in Malta.
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.
Matchfixing
The first fixed match of the Muscat era was inevitably the battle of two Commonwealth crime islands - Gibraltar versus Malta on June 4th 2014.
We have been reliably informed that the control of future Malta international matches was discussed in Gibraltar during this dalliance and passed to a major UK bookmaker.
This control only lasted for nine months however.
The cartel created in Baku in March 2015 was far more resilient and long-lasting featuring bookmakers from Malta, Gibraltar and the Philippines. Our primary broker has shown a member of our network details of the structure put in place.
Out of 23 matches since the Baku meeting, market stances undertaken by Bookmakers B, C and D have exposed 49 positions against the market and only one of these failed to be landed (on the match between Malta and Scotland in September 2016).
The database is full of agreed draws, control of the Asian Handicap markets on events with major differentials between the nations, a variety of other internal fixes and some events that were totally under control (i.e. both teams and the match officials were inside the fix).
Matches against 'associated' countries and linked associations were particularly sought - the events against Gibraltar, Estonia, Moldova, Azerbaijan and Ukraine spring to mind.
Of particular interest are the links to Britain.
Bookmakers A and C were initially established in Britain.
A Premier League club owner is involved in betting on these fixed Malta internationals via Bookmaker C.
A matchfixing football agent has very consolidated mafia links both in Britain and Malta and, we understand, ████████████████████████████████████████.
This same agent utilises Malta for Third Party Ownership illegalities relating to players and to gain EU passports for players who otherwise would be excluded from the EU countries.
Murder
On October 16th 2017, Daphne Caruana Galizia was murdered as a result of her investigative journalism revealing that Malta had evolved into a mafia state https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/.
On the day prior to her murder, Neville Gafa (of Muscat's office) had followed Daphne Caruana Galizia's vehicle around the island photographing her with the images appearing on Facebook. Despite this malicious stalking being reported to the police, no action was taken.
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.
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.
Malign and criminal interests have turned Malta into a mafia state...
... a mafia state tax haven within the EU.
It is a strange situation when the EU offers subsidies to a member state which deprives other member states of tax revenues.
Coda
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 repeatedly 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."
The day after Daphne Caruana Galizia was murdered, former Maltese international footballer Darren Debono (who played 52 times for his country) was arrested on Lampedusa relating to the mafia-based diesel smuggling operation after having his phone tapped for two years by Italian authorities.
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.
In Maltese society corruption is endemic and it should be no surprise to see lucrative betting market and matchfixing opportunities being exploited by state, business and mafia together with multiple crossover of links with other areas of corruption.
What to do?
We are making submissions to the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament to terminate the membership of the Maltese Labour Party based on the state-based mafia activities on the island.
Furthermore, Reporters Sans Frontieres have written to the British Prime Minister Theresa May to ask her to use the British chairpersonship of the Commonwealth which starts in April 2018 to prioritise the safety of journalists exposing corruption.
But against such entities, all methods need to be built into strategy.
For example, there are a lot of anti-corruption hackers on this planet and it has been brought to our attention that the Maltese elite are so busy hiding their ill-gotten gains that they exhibit excessive cybernetic sloppiness.
And hackers gonna hack!
Just saying...
The Slovakian government has reacted to the murder of Jan Kuciak...
...the Maltese government not only ignores the death of Daphne Caruana Galizia but actively mock the family and others who are trying to uncover the truth about her assassination.
It is not known whether he was referring to Muscat or Schembri.
Or both.
Timeline of Corruption
2004 - Malta eases entry for online gaming.
Bookmaker D gains gaming licence in Malta.
2008 - Joseph Muscat becomes leader of the Maltese Labour Party.
Mafia bookmaker Bet1128 formed and located in London.
2009 - Italian police close in on Bet1128.
Bet1128 illegally taken over by Maltese-based 'Ndrangheta bookmaker CenturionBet.
2010 - Bookmaker D open a Development Office in the Philippines.
2012 - April 12th: Azerbaijan develops stronger ambassadorial links with Philippines.
2013 - March 9th: Joseph Muscat is elected as Prime Minister of Malta.
A friendly football match is arranged between Azerbaijan and Malta for August 14th.
2014 - April 20th: Gibraltar Chief Minister Fabian Picardo met with top Maltese officials during a two day state visit.
June 4th: After a friendly football match between Gibraltar and Malta which was a rigged match, control of matchfixing of future Maltese Internationals is given to a UK bookmaker (Bookmaker A).
December 15th-16th 2014 - PM Joseph Muscat visits Azerbaijan to sign oil and gas agreement with Ilham Aliyev.
2015 - March 28th: Following a match between Azerbaijan and Malta in Baku, an arrangement is reached for future control of matchfixing of Malta international matches to pass to a Philippines-based bookmaker (Bookmaker B) together with Gibraltar-based firm Bookmaker C, and Maltese-based Bookmaker D.
April 28th-29th: PM Muscat attends the Baku Global Forum and was received by Aliyev.
July 22nd: BetUniq and BetSolutions4U have their Maltese licences rescinded for money laundering and members of the 'Ndrangheta are arrested and extradited.
September 6th: An agreed draw between Malta and Azerbaijan in a Euro 2016 Qualifier where the outcome was in the market pre-match.
Muscat is made Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George by Queen Elizabeth II.
November 27th: Muscat becomes Chairperson-in-Office of the Commonwealth.
2016 - March: ████████████████████████████████████████
March 24th: A matchfixing event and agreed draw between Malta and Moldova.
April: The Australian Financial Review focused on Muscat's chief of staff Keith 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).
August 31st: Another agreed draw and matchfixing operation in match between Estonia and Malta.
2017 - A sevenfold increase in Filippinos living in Malta in the 3 years since 2014.
April 9th: ██████████████████████████████████████████████
May: Operation 'Jonny' an Italian anti-mafia operation links 1128Bet and CenturionBet to money laundering by 'Ndrangheta. Their licences are revoked in June.
June 3rd: Muscat is reappointed as prime minister of Malta.
June 6th: An insider trading fixed match sees Malta win 1-0 in Ukraine with the Bookmaker Cartel (B, C and D) cleaning up financially. Ukraine's price was 1/25.
June 6th: Following Muscat's re-election, SkyBet apply for a Maltese betting licence alongside two other major global betting brands.
October 15th: Neville Gafa, of PM Joseph Muscat's office, follows Daphne Caruana Galizia around throughout the day photographing images of her that were later posted on Facebook.
October 16th: Daphne Caruana Galizia is assassinated mafia-style in a massive car bomb near her home,
October 17th: Italian police arrest former Maltese international footballer Darren Debono over a mafia-based diesel smuggling operation from Libya - his phone had been tapped for two years.
November 21st: A complaint is made to Maltese police over the trailing of Caruana Galizia by Muscat on the day prior to her death. The police bury the complaint and no action is taken.
2018 - January 18th: The Maltese government announces that relations between Malta and the Philippines have reached "unprecedented levels of interaction and cooperation".
January 29th: ██████████████████████████████████████████
February 25th: The bodies of Slovakian investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his partner Martina Kusnirova are found after a killing attributed to 'Ndrangheta mafia.
March 12th: Three Slovakian government ministers resign following the assassination of Kuciak.
March 15th: Robert Fico resigns as Slovakian prime minister.
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