Businessmen yesterday told a court how they handed over thousands in Euros and Maltese Liri to a foreigner who is now being accused of organised crime, who promised to get them an overseas bank loan of millions of Euros. The loans never materialised and they were never refunded the money they had forked out, they explained.
Four men took the stand in the case against Alexandros Konstantinos Anastasiou, also known as Konstantin Anastasiou, a Greek-born 36-year-old residing in Wardija.
Mr Anastasiou is pleading not guilty to two counts of organised crime as well as numerous cases of fraud. He allegedly defrauded five companies – Tower Manor Ltd of Lm52,000, Acorn Distributions Ltd of Lm31,000, Grimax Ltd of Lm30,000, Modern Image Ltd of Lm8,000 and Ready-to-move-in Ltd of Lm24,000. He also allegedly defrauded Ambrose Muscat of Lm31,000. He is additionally accused of misappropriating fund entrusted to him by the directors of the companies involved.
Directors of some of the above companies appeared in court yesterday and separately told their story and their involvement with the accused. Alan Briffa, of Ready-to-move-in Ltd, Joseph Quattromani of Tower Manor Ltd, Anthony Sultana of Modern Image Ltd and Fabio Grima of Grimax Ltd, each explained how they were in need of bank loans for a project related to their business.
After being introduced to Mr Anastasiou, he offered to find them a way of getting an overseas bank loan against a cut of the eventual loan amount. They handed several thousands in Euros over to the accused, but the bank loan never materialised. They explained how the accused suggested they go over to Bratislava to meet with a certain Peter Kovac to see what was causing the delay.
Each of the four businessmen who testified told the court that Mr Anastasiou told them he only handled loans for large sums of money. Mr Briffa said how initially he wanted to borrow E1 million, but had to raise that amount to E10 million for the accused to be able to get him the money. Mr Grima also said that he had asked to borrow E2.5 million but this sum was doubled by the accused.
The men told the court how much money they had given Mr Anastasiou for him to find them the loan. All claimed that initially the accused had offered to put up the expenses himself and be paid back later, but then “things changed and he began asking for money,” one of the witnesses said. Mr Briffa gave him E57,000, Mr Quattromani handed over E125,833. Mr Sultana said he passed on E22,000 to the accused while Mr Grima said he forked out E25,000.
The witnesses gave details of how exactly this money was passed on to the accused and how they claimed he had promised to pay the money back if the loans did not materialise, save his handling fee. He would have been owed 10 per cent commission on the total loan amount had the businessmen got their loans.
After none of the loans came through, the men said they were never refunded the money they had passed on to Mr Anastasiou. “Every time I called the accused about the loan, he always said the procedure is in the final stages and I should soon have my money,” explained Mr Briffa.
Mr Quattromani was the only witness who said Mr Anastasiou had paid back some of the money in installments. “He gave me E4,000 and another E2,000. The next payment due was to be of Lm860 but he only paid Lm415,” the man said.
During the cross examination, defence attorneys Dr Martin Fenech and Dr Shazoo Ghaznavi suggested the man had sent thugs over to Mr Anastasiou’s Wardija home to “rough him up.” Mr Quattromani said he was not involved in this and only knew what the police had told him when they called regarding this incident.
At the end of the sitting, Dr Fenech and Dr Ghaznavi lodged a request for their client to be released on bail. This request was refused for the fourth time since his arrest.
Inspectors Ian Abdilla and Paul Vassallo prosecuted while magistrate Saviour Demicoli presided over the court.