The Malta Financial Services Authority has removed the licence of Ariadne Capital Malta Ltd, using powers granted to it by Article 7(2) Investment Services Act.

The regulator accuses the company of having offended against Part BIII of its Investment Services Rules for Investment Services Providers by:

• failing to co-operate with it in an open manner and to supply the MFSA with the information and documents for which it asked;
• not being effectively directed and managed by at least two individuals in line with the ‘dual control’ principle;
• not notifying the regulator of the departure of directors and senior officials;
• failing to establish and maintain a compliance function;
• being without an appointed compliance officer since 3rd January this year;
• not having adequate and appropriate human and technical resources to manage Alternative Investor Funds; and
• lacking a permanent, functionally and hierarchically separate risk management function after 5th February 2016.

The compliance function of a Malta Notified Notified Alternative Investment Fund (NAIF) under the management of ACML named Ariadne Capital ECO2 VC Limited Partnership has had no compliance officer since 3rd January, when the incumbent resigned. After the resignation of the money laundering reporting officer (MLRO) of ACML with effect from 2nd November last year, the position of MLRO of the NAIF under its management, which was appointed in view of ACML’s role as an alternative investment fund manager or AIFM, also remained vacant.  
 
In doing all this, according to the MFSA, ACML was contravening the terms of reference of its investment committee, which took effect in November last year. The committee itself has not been constituted properly of late, having had to accept the resignations of some of its members. The committee is consequently unable to function properly because it lacks a quorum. Ariadne now has less than the statutory 30 days in which to appeal against the ruling.