[EXCLUSIVE] Dutch fugitive taped Melvin Theuma confiding in him of his fear of Keith Schembri

An inmate in a Dutch penitentiary has shared recordings he made of Melvin Theuma, the middleman in the Caruana Galizia assassination, in which Theuma allegedly speaks of his fear of Keith Schembri and retribution by the former chief of staff to prime minister Joseph Muscat.

The Dutch man, 21, whose identity is known to MaltaToday, shared a series of recordings he made of Theuma with the lawyers of Tumas magnate Yorgen Fenech, the man accused of being the mastermind of the assassination.

Earlier this week, Fenech’s lawyers travelled to Amsterdam to listen to the recordings captured by the one-time fugitive from justice, a teenage scam artist who spent a few years in Malta staying at the Hilton.

MaltaToday has established that the lawyers of the Dutch inmate consented that he share recordings in which Theuma would have confided to him that he feared for his life, namedropping Keith Schembri and his interest in the Caruana Galizia investigation.

The lawyers told MaltaToday they will neither confirm or deny the claims, saying they were respecting a court decree ordering parties not to comment on the proceedings of the case.

In this bizarre twist of events, the Dutch inmate – who was sentenced to 24 months in prison last October – walked right into the timeline of the Caruana Galizia investigation after striking up some sort of friendship with Theuma.

MaltaToday understands that Theuma, who ran the lucrative white-taxi stand outside the Hilton Portomaso, was on speaking terms with the then-teenager, who ran away from the Netherlands to Malta in 2016 with thousands in cash he made in an affiliate-marketing scam.

It turns out that Theuma confided in the Dutch teen – a fixture at Portomaso as he burnt through the cash he amassed from a series of internet cons – and blurted out his concerns about his fate at the hands of Keith Schembri.

The newspaper is unable to ascertain the extent of these conversations, recorded between the end of 2018 and beginning of 2019, a period in which Theuma could have been nervous about having been identified as the middleman by triggerman Vincent Muscat ‘il-Koħħu’.

The recordings appear to have been given credence by Fenech’s defence team, which visited the inmate in the Dutch penitentiary earlier this week to hear the recordings, believing these could have implications for Theuma’s presidential pardon as well as Yorgen Fenech’s case.

Despite the alleged content of the recordings, MaltaToday’s research into the Dutch man’s past reveals a troubling string of cons and fraud. Late last year he was found guilty by a Dutch court of having scammed unsuspecting victims by posing as a bailiff, or even demanding ransoms by claiming he had kidnapped the relatives of hospital workers.

In 2016 he was convicted for fraud. He was reported by gaming industry insiders of having solicited thousands in cash on a fake affiliate marketing scheme. He then fled to Malta, setting up base in the Hilton Portomaso and later other hotels.

He was finally arrested in December 2019 at the Tivoli amusement park in Copenhagen, having spent the previous months moving between Malta, Germany and Denmark.

Even when he was arrested and referred to a psychological examination by request of the public prosecutor, he was said to have deceived the psychologist by fabricating a disorder in a bid to receive a lower sentence. A court report seen by MaltaToday states he had been previously diagnosed with a form of autism and had already been involved in scams in his high school years.