On the final point: a maltese regisered company can always subcontract or source personnel from a foriegn company with the same name and the same directors.. now the waters get rather muddy do they not ?
This would be legal as the personnel would be employed by the foreign company on a foreign soil and presumably under foreign laws.
What we have been describing totally different, otherwise they would not have been deported (always if they had all the papers and contracts in order).
On the other hand, the MFSC i.e. Malta Financial Services can always invisestigate such companies that would seem to have phantom activities. (Again I am sure that something like this is being investigated)