Lawyer Aron Mifsud Bonnici has been charged with money laundering and making false tax declarations after a four-year police probe into his transactions.

The 51-year-old lawyer, who is also facing charges in connection with the Vitals hospital deal, pleaded not guilty before Magistrate Leonard Caruana on Wednesday.

The court heard from police inspector Matthew Grech who detailed the investigation, which he said started when police received confidential information on 23 August 2021 detailing allegations of money laundering and tax evasion.

He testified that the police’s investigations detailed suspicious transactions between some of Mifsud Bonnici’s accounts.

He continued that the lawyer had purchased three properties between 2017 and 2020 – an apartment and garage in Attard, an apartment and garage in Guardamangia, and a maisonette and garage in Birkirkara.

While police could account for the payments for the latter properties, there was nothing to indicate how Mifsud Bonnici had financed the Attard purchase.

The Guardamangia property and a villa in Naxxar were sold in 2023 and 2024, and between February 2024 and April 2024 police found five transactions from Mifsud Bonnici’s savings account to a Swiss bank account in his name.

The inspector said that there were discrepancies between the money held in the lawyer’s bank accounts and the tax declarations that he had filed each year – also noting that tax declarations for 2015 and 2021 had not been filed, though the latter was later filed in February 2023.

The inspector said that tax authorities informed the police that they were investigating Mifsud Bonnici’s declarations in August 2023 – and that on 4 August 2023 the lawyer made a late filing to cover 2015, before then making late filings for other years that November.

Police regarded this as suspicious, suspecting that information about the investigation into the lawyer had somehow been leaked to him.

Mifsud Bonnici was arrested on 20 February 2025 and did not reply to questions about the Swiss bank account.

A request for a freezing order to the tune of €1.6 million was upheld.

The case continues next month with the testimony of tax officials.

Magistrate Leonard Caruana presided over the case.

Attorney General lawyers Andrea Zammit and Rebekah Gatt prosecuted, assisted by Police Inspector Matthew Grech. Lawyers Giannella De Marco, Stephen Tonna Lowell, and Stefano Filletti assisted Mifsud Bonnici.