The Times view on Formations House: Dirty Laundry

To see where money laundering can lead, look no further than Malta. An entire country finds itself in the dock effectively accused of having allowed itself to become a mafia state. Investigators are trying to bring to justice those responsible for the murder of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who had exposed the rampant corruption on the island. Money laundering is the basis by which corrupt politicians sustain themselves in power and the way by which fraudulent businesses undermine companies that play by the rules. It is deeply corrosive of trust in society and undermines confidence in the rule of law. In a globalised world it is inevitably a phenomenon and as the home of the world’s leading financial centre, unfortunately too much of it