By Dan Byrne for AMLi
MALTESE AUTHORITIES have launched an investigation into an Italian national with suspected links to mafia money laundering operations.
The Maltese Financial Crime Investigation Department believes that the man planned to launder up to €36 billion on behalf of mafia contacts, as part of a larger scheme to launder €136 billion in total, a police spokesperson told the Times of Malta.
Robert Recordare is now confirmed to be under a police investigation, he is the owner of two companies in Malta – Golem Malta Limited, and accounting software company which describes itself as a provider to local Sicilian public administration facilities, and Recordare, a holding company.
Previous reports from Italian media allege that tape recordings from wire taps exist which capture Recordare speaking of his Maltese business and mocking the high-profile death of crime journalist and anti-corruption advocate Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Galizia was killed in a 2017 car bomb attack following years of reporting on corruption in Malta and further afield.
Recordare had previously told the ICIJ that he only learned of the allegations against him through the reports in the Italian media. He has since called the entire matter a “farce.”
“Hypothetical bank transactions have nothing to do with the mafia and relate to my consulting services for third parties… managed with international context,” he said.
Recordare was previously mentioned in some of the 13.4 million confidential electronic documents known collectively as the ‘Paradise Papers’ leaked in 2017 following an agreement between the ICIJ and German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.
The documents, detailing offshore investments, showed that Recordare functioned as director, legal representative, judicial representative and secretary of both his Maltese companies since their establishment in 2014.
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