Freezing order against ex-Times of Malta managing director accused of graft, reduced by court

A court has upheld a request made by lawyers for ex-Times of Malta managing director Vince Buhagiar to revise the value of a freezing order over his assets.

Buhagiar’s assets were frozen by the courts in March 2021, after he was charged with money laundering and related offences, over payments he received from a Gibraltar-based company, Malmos Ltd, owned by former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri.

He is also accused of conspiring with Schembri and another Allied Group managing director, Adrian Hillman, to skim thousands off the top of a deal through which Progress Press bought printing machinery from Kasco Ltd, another of Schembri’s companies.

Lawyers Veronique Dalli and Dean Hili, appearing for Buhagiar filed a court application on 10 November, asking for the amount frozen to be adjusted, later also making submissions to this effect.  The amount which needed to be safeguarded by the freezing order was €246,880.39, they said, arguing that freezing the entirety of the man’s assets to safeguard only that amount was unjust and asking the court to release the rest of Buhagiar’s assets from the freezing order.

Following a sitting in the compilation of evidence against Buhagiar on 17 January, Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech handed down a decree on the same day, upholding the request.

The magistrate noted the investigating police inspector Joseph Xerri had confirmed the amount of allegedly illicit funds received by the accused to be the dollar equivalent of €246,880.39.

Freezing orders were intended to preserve the assets of the accused so that the proceeds of any eventually proven crime can be recovered, said the court.

“But it must be underlined that although in money laundering proceedings the legislator chose to have all of the accused’s property confiscated unless he proves, before the civil courts that the same property is not sourced from the crime of money laundering, the fact remains that it all ties to the amount allegedly received from the laundering or the predicate offence,” ruled the court.

This was stated in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, said the magistrate, adding the legislator had intended the Act to ensure was that illicit gains were not to be enjoyed and neither were profits, income or property bought or received directly or indirectly as a result of crime.

Therefore, in cases where the amount allegedly gained had already been determined, it would be “truly unjust” for the accused to have the order extend to assets of any type in excess of this amount, said the court.

Magistrate Frendo Dimech upheld Buhagiar’s request and varied the freezing order, ruling it should remain in force, but be limited to the amount of €247,000, ordering the Director of the Asset recovery Bureau to identify and seize any assets making up that amount.

Lawyers Veronique Dalli and Dean Hili are representing Buhagiar in the proceedings.