Administrative Fines and the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit

Description

“The work prepared and compiled by ELSA (Malta) is a laudable project. It explains and describes in detail the legal grounds justifying a change in the current laws relating to the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) when it comes to the imposition of hefty administrative penalties relating to subject persons who operate in the financial services sector. Several cases have been decided by the courts ruling that the law as it stands today breaches the provisions of our Constitution, particularly the right to a fair hearing. Such cases have been decided not only because according to Maltese jurisprudence only a court of law can impose hefty fines even if formally called “administrative” but also because the entity imposing them is not considered to be legally independent, impartial and the procedure leading to such imposition was considered to be flawed and in breach of the rights enshrined in the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights. ELSA has not only explained what the problem is. It has also proposed a solution, has drafted a new Bill to solve this constitutional issue, which, whilst giving the FIAU the necessary tools to accomplish its mission, preserves and protects the fundamental rights of the individual.”

Tonio Borg
Associate Professor of Public Law
University of Malta