Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil said today that he testified before Magistrate Josette Demicoli for one and a half hours regarding the allegations and the evidence of financial transactions made by PM’s chief of staff Keith Schembri to former managing director of Allied Newspapers Adrian Hillman.
This series of allegations relate to a serious suspicion into money laundering, as described in a leaked FIAU report.
“There were no valid reasons for these transactions, apart from corruption. Once these payments were made to Hillman they were reinvested, thereby recycling the money”, Busuttil told the media as he left the Law Courts building.
Money laundering refers to the activity of receiving funds deemed to be illegal or illicit and going through a process of reinvesting or transferring them in order for those funds to be deemed legal, or ‘clean’.
Dr Busuttil described this to be a “classic case of money laundering”.
Adressing the snap election just one week away, Dr Busuttil made an appeal for the public to remember that it was called under extraordinary circumstances, with the Prime Minister being under criminal investigation (over claims that his wife is the owner of the mysterious Panama company called Egrant), that his chief of staff Keith Schembri is under no less than two investigations (allegations of kickbacks and money laundering), and that the public has a choice on whether to rubber stamp this corruption or not.
Dr Busuttil refuted the Prime Minister's claims that he is not under criminal investigation, and explained that magisterial investigations decide whether, at face value, there is enough evidence to criminally prosecute those involved in the investigations.
He addressed the revelations made by this newsroom which quoted a leaked FIAU report that commissions were received by Dr Mizzi for the LNG tanker as well as Enemalta. This was denied by the involved parties however this newsroom's managing editor Pierre Portelli is expected to testify in order to provide evidence."This could lead to even more criminal investigators".Dr Busuttil insisted that there is a police cover up into all of these allegations, because he said the police commissioner has been in possession of this information for a long time, however no action was taken."The Prime Minister has lied when presented with evidence."
Dr Busuttil said that he does not believe that the Prime Minister will resign should evidence against him with regards to the Egrant allegations be found. He reiterated his promise to replace the current police commissioner, and pledged for serious investigations to be launched should he become Prime Minister.He confirmed that the Police Commissioner never made any form of contact with him, directly or indirectly, to meet so that Dr Busuttil can present the documents that came to him in relation to the allegations surrounding Mr Schembri.When asked what he was expecting after he challenged the FIAU to publish all reports about the implicated parties, since it is precluded by law from doing so, Dr Busuttil said he placed himself at personal risk when publishing the reports himself. He said that in times like these, he expects for the right thing to be done, especially in the light of a situation where the Police Commissioner has sat on incriminating evidence for so long.
"I believe that the law should never be used to protect criminals. The law that says the entity cannot publish its own reports, is there with the intention of protecting the integrity of its own investigations and not so that after investigations are being carried out no action is taken! They are distorting the law and the Attorney General is personally responsible. The AG is personally responsible for our laws being distorted, so that instead of defending citizens against criminals it is working the other way round," Dr Busuttil said.
He questioned whether action will be taken against him for publishing leaked FIAU reports, with the intention of silencing him.
Magistrate Josette Demicoli has been appointed to look into accusations that OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri paid former Times managing director Adrian Hillman €650,000.
Magistrate Josette Demicoli has been selected by lot to lead the magisterial inquiry on the allegations surrounding the Prime Minister's chief of staff Keith Schembri and Adrian Hillman.
This comes after Magistrate Aaron Bugeja, who is conducting a separate inquiry on the Egrant allegations, ruled that the evidence presented by Leader of the Opposition Simon Busuttil last week satisfied the prerequisites needed for there to be an inquiry.
Last week, Opposition Leader went before Magistrate Aaron Bugeja with eight boxes of "irrefutable proof" on the allegations involving Mr Schembri and Mr Hillman.
Photos and video by Paul Jones