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Malta-licensed MediaLive Ltd. insists it has no ties to the Italian Mafia.
Last October, during an Italian parliamentary visit to Malta, Italian Democratic Party senator Rosy Bindi called for greater cooperation from Malta authorities to curtail organized crime.
Since the crackdown against Mafia-linked online gambling sites operating in Malta back in November, Medialive’s commercial director Rob Wheeler has threatened a lawsuit against gambling media site CalvinAyre.com for apparently suggesting his company had some type of association with crime elements in Italy.
Wheeler called the reporting a “a complete fabrication” and called CA writer Steven Stradbrooke “a complete story teller,” while vowing to “file a lawsuit and sue you” if the articles weren’t retracted.
From CalvinAyre.com:
Wheeler insists that the Medialive directors were arrested due to “a small underpayment in tax, over five years … less than €60,000” on its Italian operations. Wheeler also insists that “no one is under arrest anymore” and the company is “not part of the Mafia.”
We feel it’s worth noting that the original Italian media article that we linked to in our coverage remains online in its original form, as does the Times of Malta story that identified the two Medialive directors, as well as coverage of the arrests in other respected industry publications such as GamblingCompliance.
Five international Web gambling firms were made to leave the world's largest Internet gambling hub of Malta back in March.
A Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) gaming probe resulted in one licence suspended, one cancelled and three companies choosing to avoid scrutiny by unilaterally “terminating” their own licences. Each is said to have ties to Italian organized crime.
- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
