The Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) has taken decisive regulatory action against lawyer and businessman Pio Valletta, imposing an administrative penalty of €105,000 and ordering him to immediately cease unauthorised Company Service Provider (CSP) activities.

The MFSA found that Dr Valletta was offering directorships, company secretarial services, and registered office facilities to multiple Maltese companies without the necessary authorisation.

Consequently, he has been instructed to:

1. Cease all unauthorised CSP activities immediately, as defined under the CSP Act.
2. Refrain from onboarding new clients or providing additional services to existing ones.
3. Preserve all relevant documentation, ensuring no destruction, alteration, or amendment of records related to services requiring prior MFSA authorisation.

The MFSA determined that Dr Valletta was in breach of multiple regulations:

• Operating without proper authorisation.
• Failing to provide the necessary information to the Authority.
• Failure to submit required information under trust-related regulations.

Previous legal issues

This is not the first time that Dr Valletta has faced legal and financial scrutiny.

In 2023, Dr Valletta was ordered by an appeals court to refund a client €300,000 that he withdrew from her account without consent.

The case revolved around Elnara Shorazova, the widow of Kazakh oligarch Rakhat Aliyev, who instructed Dr Valletta in 2010 to deposit €2.4 million into an account for a business venture in Austria. However, Dr Valletta allegedly took €900,000 as professional fees without informing Ms Shorazova.

 After a police report was filed, an out-of-court settlement required Dr Valletta to repay the sum under agreed conditions.

When he failed to uphold the agreement, Ms Shorazova took him to court, and the appeals court ruled that he must return the full amount and cover all court expenses.