Malta mesh

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The Malta scam , also known as the Malta trick or Malta debt collection , is a fraudulent method of making unjustified monetary claims through a Maltese debt collection company in Germany legally effective in order to then collect them. In addition to attempting to establish an enforceable title, the alleged debtor can also be blackmailed through a warning letter from the debt collection company, referring to the alleged possibility of the European dunning procedure. This procedure has become particularly known because it was used by members of the Reich Citizens' Movement to transform fictitious claims against government representatives and administrative employees into actually enforceable titles .

functionality

This article or section needs revision: This section is not completely understandable (and the indicated source 1 is of no help). Are Maltese courts even responsible for (alleged) claims by Maltese companies against, for example, German debtors? Will ever be a European Dunning procedure carried out (or is this an uncontested claims enforcement order)? What does the last sentence of the section mean, especially since it is in the subjunctive ("... would only be responsible in very limited exceptional cases, appropriate cases would have to be constructed")?
Please help to improve it , and then remove this flag.

The usual procedure for the Malta scam is: A claim is entered in the register of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) of the State of Washington in the USA , which can be done online. The US authorities do not review the legality of the claim. These bogus claims are then transferred to a Maltese collection agencies trying subsequently, before a Maltese court enforceable titles one after the European order for payment procedure European order for payment to reach. This takes advantage of the fact that under Maltese law a claim can be established through regular court proceedings and the creditor can assume that the debtor will not appear in court in Malta within the set period of 30 days. In some cases, these debt collection agencies (example: Pegasus International Incasso Limited) have been set up by the same group that previously registered the claim in the UCC. Since the Maltese courts would only have jurisdiction in very limited exceptional cases according to the jurisdiction rules of Regulation 44/2001 / EEC, appropriate cases would have to be constructed.

Application attempts

The Malta scam is used by “Reich citizens” especially to threaten and unsettle their opponents. On the one hand, this affects representatives of the state such as Chancellor Angela Merkel and the former Federal President Joachim Gauck , but on the other hand, a large number of “simple” administrative and court employees are also exposed to such procedures. So far, however, no case is known in which a claim has been enforced. In a Bundestag printed paper from October 14, 2016 in response to a minor question , the federal government assumes that enforcement is not possible under any circumstances.

Defense

The defense with regard to the UCC register is trivial when the entry becomes known, since entries against (foreign) officials are not permitted there and will be deleted at the request of the office of the respective person concerned.

On the other hand, defending against debt collection claims is more problematic, especially their regularly absurdly high value of often several million euros, which represents a high potential threat. It is therefore now common in the area of ​​the authorities for affected officials to receive support from the respective state or federal government. Due to the targeted attacks on federal and state employees, the federal government is in contact with the governments and other agencies of the United States and Malta in relation to the Malta scam in order to point out the possible criminal liability of this approach. However, in no case is there a (civil) legal basis for enforcement. In a letter from the Foreign Office to the Justice Ministries of the federal states, it is asked to report cases of the Malta scam to the Foreign Office; there they are forwarded to the Maltese Attorney General. Faking an invented claim is also punishable under Maltese law as fraud or a similar offense; perjury in case of divorce .

Trivia

The radio crime scene of the ARD in the Kingdom of Germany processed the Malta-Masche into a crime radio play: A bailiff is (supposedly) put under pressure by members of the Reichsbürger scene in this way.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Information from the Ministry of Justice and Equal Opportunities in Saxony-Anhalt , accessed on October 23, 2016.
  2. ↑ Summary of EU legislation - European order for payment procedure
  3. ^ Malta blackmail scheme has no prospect of success. In: time online. October 24, 2016. Retrieved October 25, 2016.
  4. ↑ The Malta scam "Reichsbürger" try to intimidate judicial employees in Magdeburg. In: Mitteldeutsche Zeitung. October 28, 2015, accessed October 23, 2016.
  5. ^ Citizens of the Reich threaten Merkel and Gauck. ( Memento of July 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) July 13, 2016, accessed on October 23, 2016.
  6. ↑ a b c d BT-Drs. 18/9978 of October 14, 2016 . Retrieved October 26, 2016.
  7. ↑ Georg Mascolo , Christian Baars: Future punishments for Malta mesh. tagesschau.de , December 6, 2016, accessed December 6, 2016 .
  8. ^ Radio-Tatort in the Kingdom of Germany