PM sends CapitalOne inquiry to FIAU, Fenech Adami: ‘no interference on my part’

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has announced he will refer the contents of the CapitalOne board of inquiry’s report to the police and the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit .

The board of inquiry led by judge emeritus J.D. Farrugia said it could not confirm, neither exclude, that police in January 2013 did not pursue a money laundering investigation into CapitalOne Investment Group because its nominal shareholder, Baltimore Fiduciary Services, had Beppe Fenech Adami as its non executive director at the time.

Fenech Adami, today the PN’s deputy leader for party affairs, was then parliamentary assistant for home affairs.

MaltaToday reported news of the spiked police investigation in October 2016.

A technical report into the CapitalOne banking transactions, which total over €5 million and passed through a Bank of Valletta account, was not published by the board of inquiry. But the board of inquiry said that the facts of this report “warrant a more thorough review/investigation by competent national authorities.” 

The board of inquiry included judges emeritus Philip Sciberras and Lawrence Quintano.

Nationalist MP Beppe Fenech Adami said the CapitalOne inquiry had shown he did not interfere in the police investigation of January 2013.

Nationalist MP Beppe Fenech Adami

He said the inquiry ordered by the Prime Minister had “blown up in his face” because after four months of “lies and mudslinging,” the inquiry report confirmed that had not interfered in any investigation carried out by the Police or the Attorney General.

Fenech Adami said that the inquiry report had also confirmed that he never abused of his position as an MP and that he never spoke with former Commissioner Michael Casasar or with any officials from the Auditor General’s office regarding CapitalOne.

Fenech Adami said the report shows that he was not involved in the operation of CapitalOne – which was under the nominal ownership of Baltimore Fiduciary Services – and that he had never been informed by any authority, including the MFSA, of any investigation into the transactions of Capital One. “The case has blown up in Muscat’s face,” said Fenech Adami. “This is an example of Muscat’s politics: lying and mud-slinging without any proof.”

On its part, the Labour Party said the board of inquiry had concluded that the CapitalOne investigation had been “stopped abruptly” at the time that Fenech Adami’s name cropped up.

“The inquiry found that important documents disappeared from the police file. It does not beat about the bush when it says that in January 2013, Fenech Adami’s name turned the investigation into a hot potato that could have brought unpleasant consequences to whoever grappled with the investigation.”

The PL said that Opposition leader Simon Busuttil had to “understand the gravity of the report” and say what steps he would take with regards to Fenech Adami.