Maltese gaming consultant receives prison sentence

[The Buzz]

Maltese gaming consultant Iosif Galea, who had been arrested in Italy under German arrest warrant, has been sentenced to 2.5 years in prison by a German court for tax evasion.

The former compliance officer at the Lotteries and Gaming Authority (now the Malta Gaming Authority) and a director of Tipbet-operator Tipin was found guilty of evading €1.7 million in taxes owed over a period of 32 months between May 2017 and December 2019. A German court ruled that Galea avoided paying 5% on his income from sport betting, which he owed to the German state.

From Newsbook:

Galea, a gaming consultant who was wanted by the police in Germany over tax evasion was allowed to repeatedly travel out of Malta. He was only arrested while on holiday in Italy with a group that included former prime minister Joseph Muscat in April.
A separate European Arrest Warrant was issued by the Maltese authorities as he is suspected of having conspired in leaking MGA insider information.

This month, an internal investigation found that two Malta Police Force officers failed in their duties when they did not arrest Galea, but exonerated the force’s top brass from any responsibility.

An internal inquiry, chaired by Judge Emeritus Franco Depasquale, with Judge Emeritus Geoffrey Valenzia and Captain Reuben Lanfranco as members, was entrusted with probing the police’s failure to arrest Galea despite him being subject to a European Arrest warrant issued by a Germany more than a year ago.

Read more here: https://newsbook.com.mt/en/iosif-gal...rmany-cassola/

[MMM]

5% tax? amazing.

i really need to move somewhere else

[insiderjoe]

5% isn't really much. Especially, for your freedom.