Public Statement by the Malta Financial Services Authority that it has disqualified John Anthony Farrell, a citizen of the United Kingdom, for not being "fit and proper".
In a series of regulatory actions announced on Friday, the Malta Financial Services Authority cancelled the licenses of three investment firms and imposed fines on a retirement scheme and its administrator.
The closure of the Malta operations of Argentarius Group, which now operates in the Cayman Islands as iMaps Capital, coincided with preliminary legal action against it by the Bank of Valletta regarding an alleged investment fraud that resulted in losses of at least €79 million, OffshoreAlert can reveal.
Former Malta Finance Minister Tonio Fenech has been banned from accepting any new appointments with regulated entities by the Malta Financial Services Authority for failing to adequately supervise a company of which he is a director and whose investors were allegedly swindled out of up to €247 million. Fellow Malta nationals Ian Zammit and Joseph Xuereb were similarly penalized.
Argentarius Group, which operates investment platforms in Malta, Gibraltar and the Cayman Islands on which several suspect schemes have been trying to raise funds, has been kicked off the Gibraltar Stock Exchange.