Malta Gaming Authority chairman Joseph Cuschieri has so far failed to explain why one of the gaming companies allegedly involved in ties with the Italian mafia was given a licence backdated by more than a year and a half.

The Times of Malta is informed that while the MGA chairman signed the licence of Uniq Group Ltd in December 2013, the licence was backdated to May 2012.

Asked to explain the reason for this, Mr Cuschieri said that he needed to check what exactly happened.

Asked whether it was normal practice for the MGA to issue backdated licences, Mr Cuschieri only said that his signature was the last stage of several checks.

“This might be because of issues related to due diligence. However, I will check and have no problem giving you all the necessary details,” Mr Cuschieri said.

Mr Cuschieri insisted that Malta was a role model when it came to gaming regulations and to the seriousness of how checks and balances of licence holders were carried out.

Earlier this week the MGA suspended six gaming licences, including the ones related to Uniq Group Ltd, following reports by the Italian authorities that these companies based in Malta were being used by the 'Ndrangheta – the Calabrian mafia - to launder massive amounts of dirty cash.

Parliamentary Secretary Jose Herrera denied that Malta recently relaxed its enforcement of the gaming industry prompting the infiltration of criminal organisations.

“On the contrary, we have tightened our due diligence even more in the last months. However, there will always be the case of some bad apples,” he said.

Dr Herrera argued against any movement or legislation to eliminate the fiduciary services as he said “this will mean the end of the financial services industry in Malta”.

He said that such services existed in all EU states.