Fondazione Falcone representative Robert Aquilina, on Tuesday, went to the Floriana Police Headquarters and presented a criminal complaint regarding the Fortina scandal to Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa.

In a statement posted on social media, Aquilina said that, accompanied by lawyer Jason Azzopardi and in the name of Fondazione Falcone, he referred to the Auditor General’s report on Fortina and said that he had presented the criminal complaint to Gafa in connection with the fraud, criminal conspiracy, and theft of €13,000,000 outlined in the NAO report.

The NAO report found that the government had pushed through a parliamentary resolution to remove conditions on land acquired by the Fortina Group, which saw the private sector entity pay millions less than what a government-appointed audit firm had valued. It also found that the audit valuation was kept hidden – meaning that taxpayers were short-changed by €16 million.

Aquilina stated that Fondazione Falcone indicated Keith Schembri and former Lands Authority CEO Carlo Mifsud as primary suspects. He continued that in the complaint, 27 paragraphs from the NAO report were quoted in which Schembri and Mifsud’s criminal involvement was made clear.

Aquilina said that several crimes were listed within the complaint, including criminal conspiracy, trading in influence, fraud, disclosure of official secrets, false declarations to a public authority, and money laundering.

He said that through the criminal complaint, Fondazione Falcone is formally demanding that police investigations be carried out and that the Police Commissioner request the opening of a magisterial inquiry.

“We will use all the tools that the law gives us so that the Maltese people obtain justice for this theft, so that those responsible are brought to justice, and so that the stolen millions are returned to the people,” Aquilina said.