The Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) has just put up a public notice about the latest developments in the investigations carried out into Maltese Cross Financial Services Limited, the investment company that in August 2014 turned out to be unable to meet its obligations to clients.
The regulator says the probes into the company are ongoing.
In March this year, directors of Maltese Cross filed an application with the Court for the liquidation of the company. MFSA then requested the Court’s permission to intervene in the case and the Court accepted the request.
As an interim measure and pending the Court’s decision on whether the company should be dissolved and liquidate, on May 28, 2015 the Court appointed an official receiver as provisional administrator of Maltese Cross. The administrators will take control of the company, including all of its assets and will administer its affairs instead of the directors.
The provisional administrator is not entitled to sell or dispose of any assets of Maltese Cross in order to pay the liabilities of the company, the watchdog notes. In case the Court decides that the company should be wound-up, a liquidator will be appointed.
In the course of MFSA’s investigations into the activities of Maltese Cross, the regulator has managed to establish that as of August 11, 2014 the total value of investments held by the company on a nominee basis on behalf of its 222 clients should have amounted to just above €6.95 million ($7.8 million). However, the total value of investments that were still intact at that point totaled meager €475,000. This means there is a shortfall of approximately €6,475,000.
MFSA has sought to rebuff accusations of negligence in the supervision of Maltese Cross Financial Services and instead tried to put the blame on auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), who audited the firm’s annual returns files.
Maltese Cross used to hold a Category 2 investment firm license in Malta.
To view the latest public notice by the MFSA on the Maltese Cross case, click here.