The Malta Independent 10 February 2025, Monday
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Duo charged with money laundering, human trafficking over four-year identity fraud racket

Thursday, 16 January 2025, 17:03 Last update: about 24 days ago

A duo was charged with money laundering, human trafficking, forgery, fraud and bribery in connection with a stolen identity card racket on Thursday.

Maria Rita Spiteri, 32, who is a former Identità employee, and Bernard Attard, a 33-year-old car dealer, faced charges in court before Magistrate Joseph Gatt.

They were arraigned separately and charged with having committed a raft of offences including money laundering, forgery, fraud, and bribery between October 2019 and March 2023.

Both pleaded not guilty.

Police inspector Christian Abdilla testified before the court that the police began investigating third-country nationals who had fraudulent residence documents at the end of 2023, in an operation which eventually led to the arrest of five individuals.

All five told police of Attard and Spiteri’s key roles in obtaining false documents, with Attard being the person responsible for collecting their money for the forged documents.

The two accused were arrested on 18 July 2024 and let out on police bail.

Both of them sought bail from the courts, but the prosecution contested, citing evidence tampering and the fact that third-country nationals were yet to testify as concerns.  The court remanded the accused in custody and ordered their assets to be frozen.

Inspectors Andy Rotin, Keith Darmanin, Lara Butters, Christian Abela, together with Attorney General lawyers Manuel Grech and Andrea Zammit prosecuted.

Lawyers Alfred Abela and Rene Darmanin acted as the defence for Spiteri. Lawyers Jose Herrera and Matthew Xuereb acted as the defence for Attard.

There is also an ongoing magisterial inquiry into the forged documents racket which was prompted by a request from former PN MP Jason Azzopardi in August 2024.  Azzopardi had named both of the accused in his request for the inquiry.

In a statement meanwhile, Identità said that court testimony had “definitively confirmed” that the agency was right and contradicted the “unfounded and baseless” allegations that had been made against it.

It welcomed the legal steps taken against the accused and said that these came after an internal investigation was started in September 2022 by the agency.

Identità said that it does not tolerate any abuse or actions which reduce from its integrity and remains committed to investigating and taking any necessary steps against any possible wrongdoing.

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