Leading auctioneer and financial services practitioner charged with money laundering, released on €100,000 bail

The two were charged with laundering "millions of euro" over a period leading up to February this year

The owner of a local auction firm and a financial service practitioner have been released on a €100,000 bail bond each after denying money laundering charges in court this morning.

Pierre Grech Cumbo Pillow, 44, from Ta’ Xbiex and Jason Vella Tabone, 37, from Qormi, appeared before Magistrate Nadine Lia charged with laundering “millions of euro” over a period leading up to February this year. Charges were also made against PGP Trading Limited, which company Vella is a director of and Grech Cumbo Pillow a shareholder.

The company, which had been set up in 2016, is in the process of being dissolved.

The court, presided by Magistrate Nadine Lia, was told that a magisterial inquiry into the alleged money laundering was still pending after being opened in September 2019.

Grech Cumbo Pillow and Vella Tabone were charged with transferring property which they knew or could have reasonably suspected to have been derived from criminal activities and with attempting to cover up this illicit activity.

The pair denied the charges, pleading not guilty. Their lawyers asked for bail.

In submissions for bail, lawyers Giannella de Marco and John Refalo for Grech Cumbo Pillow and lawyers Michael Sciriha, Albert Zerafa and Matthew Xuereb argued that their clients had been on police bail for a number of months and that there was nothing precluding the court from refusing the request.

The two had been arrested in September last year and had their police bail renewed four of five times since then, argued the defence. De Marco submitted that the magisterial inquiry was still not concluded and that there was no recommendation that the police arrest and charge the men. She said the two accused had been asked to go the police depot to release a statement only to be arrested upon their arrival and presented in court under arrest.

Lawyer Cinzia Azzopardi Alamango, from the Attorney General’s office, said the prosecution was insisting on its opposition to bail due to the gravity of the case as well as a fear of absconding because the two had ties in other countries. She said the acts of money laundering allegedly involved foreigners and that the accused were receiving instructions from abroad, but could not provide sufficient details to convince the court to deny the men bail.

Magistrate Lia granted the bail request, ordering the accused to sign a bail book daily, to observe a curfew, to deposit the sum of €50,000 as well as provide a €50,000 personal guarantee.

The court also issued a freezing order on all the men’s assets, which had already been the subject of an attachment order during the police investigation.