A court rejected a claim made by Wallace Falzon, who served as a director of financial services firm All Invest Co. Ltd (which had filed for bankruptcy), that the financial regulator's directive issued, holding him back from going ahead and liquidating his company's assets until he pays off his dues, is in breach of his fundamental rights.

Mr Falzon filed a Constitutional case following the Malta Financial Services Authority's issuing of the directive. The request, which was turned down, read that the MFSA breached his rights when it issued its directive, going against Article 39 of the Constitution and Article Six of the European Convention, when it denied him access to the courts to liquidate before settling his dues.

Mr Falzon had been faced with a number of judicial protests filed by former clients of his who invested in the firm after it was alleged by the MFSA director general that he colluded with third parties to divest himself of the assets he accumulated through the company, and then began court proceedings to declare the company insolvent.

Several couples had filed a judicial protest against the financial services firm. The group of investors, which had been authorised to form part of a court case to defend their interests against the financial firm, comprised at least 29 individuals. The investors had argued that they lost €500,000 of their money and the firm should not try to avoid legal responsibilities by simply declaring itself bankrupt.

In the application filed by two of the investors, some said that they were wrongly sold financial products and lost all the money they had saved to ensure their disabled son could continue receiving therapy after they pass away.

The investors who entrusted their funds in the company had claimed Mr Falzon had guaranteed a safe, capital-guaranteed investment, but it was everything but safe and they were subsequently informed their investments had run into very serious problems.