How Real-World Money Laundering Cases Are Outpacing My Crime Stories
As a writer, I’ve been attracted to the intricate world of financial crime, drawing on my career in banking and finance. Money laundering, with its complex schemes and shadowy networks, has been a recurring plot in my books. I’ve crafted narratives involving corruption using shell companies, and clandestine operations, always teetering on the edge between what is legal and illegal, believing I was delving into the depths of criminal ingenuity.
As happened when I wrote my debut novel, The Maltese Web, fiction can be overtaken by real-life events, but that was bound to happen given it took me ten years to write my first book. I was again haunted by this nightmare when recent real-world events made my fictional plots seem almost quaint. As I sent my latest book, Deception Under Maltese Skies, to the printers, I was struck by these two stories that leapt out at me.
A case reported by ABC Australia on 9 June, 2025 stated that four individuals had been charged in connection with an elaborate money laundering operation in Queensland. The Australian Federal Police seized over $21 million in assets, including properties and luxury cars. The group allegedly funnelled illicit cash through legitimate businesses. What stood out to me was the reported statement from AFP Detective Superintendent Adrian Telfer, who alleged that the group had washed millions of dollars in the proceeds of crime through multiple Australian businesses. He said some of the businesses involved had both legitimate and illegitimate arms, which made the investigation complex. The full story can be found here at abc.net.au
In Deception Under Maltese Skies, my main character Marica Debono, Malta’s best financial investigator explains, ‘ … people … trying to move their wealth, be it legitimate or illegitimate, to retain access to their assets … mix the illicit with legitimate payments, through their accounts.’
She justifies her actions to pursue the alleged criminals, ‘My experience told me that the greater complexity of financial relationships, the higher the likelihood we had of a money laundering network on our hands.’
It is a classic money laundering process which requires a skilled office to detect the deception.
Meanwhile, in Malta, a story broke on 11 June, 2025, involving significant payments made to a company owned by a former minister. The payments were for leasing office space between 2017 and 2022, in a large office tower – Portomaso. The arrangement came under scrutiny because of regular payments of the same amount and the contract was reportedly drafted retroactively. The full story can be found here at timesofmalta.com
While my book does not involve any payments to government officials, it does by coincidence, have a pivotal scene in Portomaso, a twenty-three story tower near St Julians. I have set both my books in the years following the global financial crisis, when it sent ripples across the EU. At the time, Portomaso was the tallest building on the island. My character also has a breakthrough identifying a pattern of regular payments.
Once Marica has the criminals denying their crimes, she hits them with, ‘… the clincher was that every two weeks, on the same day, there was an amount transferred from Azure Maritime, we now know through Kaħwiela, to your company.’
Compounding this situation is that Marica is being investigated over her intelligence methods and complains, ‘Do they see me as such a threat to their system that they must punish me? Let the inquisition begin.’
‘This is not funny. No mistakes today.’
George does not appreciate my referencing the island’s inquisitors who were to find and root out trouble makers during the time of the Knights, even though he too, has used the term.
In the article, “Dalli refused to answer specific questions, instead claiming to be the victim of an “inquisition”.”
These real-life cases are not only complex but also involve significant sums of money and sophisticated methods – elements I strive to incorporate into my fiction. And yet even a phrase can be uttered by fictional characters and later by someone in real-life.
Reality is proving to be tough to stay ahead of, as I write more intricate and audacious scenarios while trying to retain the authenticity in everything I’ve written. As I continue to write, I strive to take readers to a different place while having the stories grounded in a believable reality. I aim to capture the evolving nature of financial crime, ensuring my stories, have the sense of intrigue married with the authenticity of real-life while reflecting the complexities and nuances of the real world that affect real-life victims.
When reality outpaces fiction, it’s a call for writers to dig deeper, and craft narratives that both entertain and resonate with the truths unfolding around us.
You can find my books, Deception Under Maltese Skies and The Maltese Web on Amazon in kindle and paperback
