Adrian Hillman extradition delayed after UK authorities seek more paperwork

The extradition of Adrian Hillman from the UK has been delayed after the authorities there have asked for more paperwork from police counterparts in Malta.

The request by the Maltese authorities for Hillman’s extradition was sent last month but the UK’s National Crime Agency has asked for further documentation, Times of Malta reported on Thursday.

Hillman is wanted by the Maltese police on charges of money laundering and corruption.

The former Allied Newspapers managing director has been living in London with his family where he is also studying at the Goldsmiths University.

Times of Malta reported that part of delay is because Malta used the same template from the European Arrest Warrant system to make its request, something no longer applicable in the UK following Brexit.

The request is now being processed through the new UK-EU surrender agreement.

The newspaper said Hillman has been contacted by the police in the UK to ascertain his location but has not been informed whether he will be extradited to Malta or not at this point. He did not respond to requests for a comment.

Police plan to press criminal charges against Hillman after the conclusions of a magisterial inquiry into the purchase of three multi-million-euro printing machines by Progress Press from Keith Schembri’s company Kasco Ltd a decade ago. 

Schembri, together with his business associates, financial advisers Nexia BT and Zenith Finance, formerly MFSP, are all facing a number of criminal charges.

Vince Buhagiar, who was chairman of Progress Press at the time the printing machines were bought, has also been charged with having received kickbacks from Schembri and laundering those illicit funds. The compilation of evidence against him continued this week.

According to a leaked Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit report, Schembri allegedly filtered over €650,000 to Hillman in over 30 “suspicious transactions” between 2011 and 2015.