Malta Gaming Authority Official Resigns Amidst Data Misuse Scandal

Malta has walked a challenging road the last year with its financial services industry being downgraded for a lack of transparency and a perceived lack of oversight by the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) and the Financial Intelligence Analyses Unit (FIAU).

Despite these issues, the Malta Gaming Authority has continued to be considered one of the leading gambling regulators in the world. However, the recent revelation that one of the gaming authority’s senior officials is under investigation for abusing his position could mar the reputation of Malta’ shining star.

 Leaving Under A Cloud

The Times of Malta reported that the local police are investigating none other than the MGA's chief technology officer, Jason Farrugia, over charges relating to the “alleged misuse of sensitive internal information”.

In their regular clinical fashion, the MGA simply posted the following notice on their website:

“The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) hereby declares that Jason Farrugia, formerly Chief Officer Technology within the MGA, no longer has any connection to the MGA and can no longer represent it or speak on its behalf.”

While their “official” response holds their cards close the Times reported that Farrugia was dismissed after an internal investigation in data breaches and his involvement in them determined that the best course of action was to hand their findings over to the local authorities for further investigation.

According to the Times, an unnamed senior member of the MGA claimed that Farrugia has been caught “red-handed” leading to the decision to move forward with a criminal case against him

Commenting on this a company representative said:

“The police will now have to establish what he was doing with this data,”

In a later communication it was revealed that despite his knowledge of internal systems, as the gaming authorities CTO, Farrugia had used his own work terminal to move sensitive data from MGA servers to a personal offsite account. Given that the case had been handed over to the Malta constabulary the company refused to speculate on what he may have used the data for.

History Repeats Itself

Malta’s gaming industry has not had a fantastic year when it comes to the Farrugia family marring its reputation. Earlier this year former MGA CEO Heathcliff Farrugia was brought up on criminal charges relating to his relationship with a Maltese businessman and murder suspect Yorgen Fenech.

The charges claimed that Farrugia and Fenech corresponded  “at some length” on topics including the financials of rival casino operations and how to avoid issues during anti-money laundering inspections.

The reason the drama surrounding Farrugia and Fenech did not blowback on the MGA much was due to the fact that Farrugia resigned in October 2020 and the charges were only brought March 2021. However, Times Malta claim that the only reason he resigned was that the local authorities had questioned him regarding this less than ideal relationship and the content of their lengthy discussions.