Former Malta Gaming Authority Exec in Court on Money Laundering Charges

Jason Farrugia has had his number 1 solar day in lawcourt and it didn’t lead well. The former chief technology ship's officer for the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) can’t escape allegations he misused raw information and facilitated money laundering.

34-year-old Farrugia resigned from his job utmost Dec after 10 years after the MGA caught him manipulating the regulator’s data. Soon after, police arrested him.

In his lawcourt visual aspect this past times Wednesday, he found come out what comes next. The justice inwards the case, magistrate Yana Micallef Stafrace, ordered him to gaol with no chance of bail, according to The Times of Malta.

Farrugia wasn’t alone, however. Sitting beside him and also cladding charges was his wife, Christine. Both attempted to plead non guilty to the accusations, but lost. Like her husband, Christine Farrugia will live held without bail.

Repeat Offender

Prosecutors feature charged both with money laundering. Jason was supercharged separately with a boniface of other alleged offenses, including extortion and accepting bribes. He also faces allegations of disclosing raw and confidential information, as intimately as misuse of MGA property. The latter stems from his repeated memory access to the entropy using MGA computers.

The royal court was not given any details around the investigating that led to Farrugia’s arrest. However, sources interior the regulator claimed that he was being suspected of unpredictable approach to commercially raw and confidential selective information at the authority.

Police investigations into the former MGA functionary were on-going for hexad months before Farrugia found out that he was a target. Mario Buttigieg, his lawyer, told the lawcourt that his involvement extends from the real beginning, when the investigating first off started.

The wife’s lawyer, Lennox Vella, strongly appealed for bail. She highlighted the fact that the match had a three-month-old sister and another one-and-a-half-year-old child. Keeping Christine inward custody would only if head to both finish inwards the tutelage of tertiary parties.

Vella tried to ingrain upon the jurist her client’s innocence, accenting that she had ne'er yet stepped interior a courtroom for any typewrite of infraction. Magistrate Stafrace, however, set that remanding her into custody was the best option.

Case Remains Tightly Sealed

All evidence inward the showcase is inwards the records of the magisterial inquiry, reducing the opening of tampering. During the court of justice appearance, little discourse occurred almost the nature of the investigation or the evidence.

In addition, prosecutors and the courts aren’t releasing inside information well-nigh the nature of the information Farrugia allegedly accessed and what he did with it. Furthermore, throughout all of these months, he has had no more striking with any witnesses.

The judicature enquiry and the law investigation are noneffervescent underway. As a result, there could be additional charges, as advantageously as to a greater extent suspects and witnesses.

The criminal prosecution argued that at that place is ease a chance for grounds tampering, which may be component part of the intellect no more single is divulging many of the details. Because of the tender nature of the case, the judicature granted the prosecution permission to immobilise all of the couple’s assets.

Motives Still Unclear

There are several possible scenarios that may feature led Farrugia to doh what he did, assuming the charges are legitimate. The MGA has been the case of multiple criticisms over the past times few years. There have got been allegations of wrongdoing, financial mismanagement, depravation and more plaguing the regulator.

As such, perhaps Farrugia was working to protect the MGA but became the whipping boy when investigators determined something was sledding on. Ultimately, the theory doesn’t carry upwards to scrutiny.

There could also live a connecter to Yorgen Fenech, the former gambling casino possessor who allegedly ordered the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. She was investigating a grammatical case of subversion that spanned the entirety of Malta at the time. While that was years before Farrugia’s alleged crook activity, perhaps he was purging records and serving someone else avoid punishment.

Perhaps Farrugia was performing alone. Maybe he thought he found a way of life to airt MGA monetary resource for his personal benefit. Or, maybe he was serving a cassino operator, or operators, set reports so they didn’t hold to dedicate upwards so a great deal revenue.

There’s still one other possibility that has to follow considered. Perhaps the Farrugias are completely innocent.