How to read the transcript of infamous Chris Cardona ‘frame-up’ letter

The first part of a transcript of the infamous Chris Cardona ‘frameup’ letter which former Chief of Staff Keith Schembri sent to Yorgen Fenech has been published.

The letter was allegedly sent to Fenech by Schembri through their personal doctor.

The doctor, Adrian Vella had told the police that he was instructed by Schembri to hand over the letter to Fenech. In turn Schembri denied the allegations, telling the court that he hadn’t given the letter to Vella.

Below is the translated transcript. The struck-out words reflect the parts crossed out by Yorgen Fenech in the original letter. Words in italics reflect the scribbled writing that were written by Fenech, and the parts in square brackets were added for context. 

“Melvin told me that CC [Chris Cardona] had instructed Toni, known as L-Iblah, who used to work at his ministry, to let Fredu [Alfred Degiorgio] know that he should start going to Ferdinand’s Bar.

Witness saw Chris Cardona chatting with Caruana Galizia murder suspect in Siggiewi bar: Ferdinand’s was presented as the alleged location where Cardona woudl have met one of the executors of the assassination

CC f̶o̶r̶c̶e̶d̶ continued implying pressure on Fredu to get rid of dcg [Daphne Caruana Galizia] for him as quickly as possible, so that she doesn’t fuck up the brothel case for him. He made it clear that she must disappear from the scene before the date of the next case [the libel case Cardona had opened against Caruana Galizia after she wrote that he had visited a German brothel], because DCG had requested the call location data of CC’s mobile.

Here is the original Cardona brothel story: Minister denies blogger’s claim source saw him inside German brothel

Lawyer to minister's aide says request to drop brothel libel case came from Peter Caruana Galizia

Cardona aide Fredu l-Iblah is mentioned in this story: Police questioned member of Cardona’s secretariat in Caruana Galizia murder investigation

CC had known that he was going to get exposed and found guilty of perjury. This information didn’t reach my ears from Melvin alone. CC had said openly to a number of people at the Stables Bar when he was drunk, and even in court, that he was 100% certain that DCG wasn’t going to be able to testify. He told me this himself at a restaurant in Valletta.

The first story on the middleman: Suspect is loan shark Melvin Theuma, PM will recommend pardon

CC, Fredu and Toni used to meet up at Ferdinand’s and spend a lot of time talking both inside and outside the bar, and walking through the street by themselves; sometimes they would even go to a private house after meeting up at Ferdinand’s. For a long time, Toni would always accompany them. David Gatt was the person who would coordinate everything at the potato shed in Marsa and sometimes he would also be with CC at Stable’s and Ferdinand’s.

W̶h̶e̶n̶ ̶C̶C̶ ̶a̶s̶k̶e̶d̶ ̶F̶r̶e̶d̶u̶ ̶h̶o̶w̶ ̶m̶u̶c̶h̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶w̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶c̶o̶s̶t̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶ CC first promised 300,000 but then Fredu requested a Freeport trade license – that way, he would be able to import cigarettes and alcohol through the black market.

They let me know how things would play out. Fredu had told CC that he had issued a number of licenses of the type he was requesting. He mentioned the case of the license that was granted to Carlo Seychell’s son. After the license was granted, a deal was struck with people high up in the Customs Department through which alcohol and cigarettes that were imported to the Freeport and that were supposed to be exported from Malta ended up getting sold in Malta duty free. Chris agreed to give this license…… AND THE MURDER TOOK PLACE.

Caruana Galizia murder: Decision to assassinate the journalist was taken in early 2017, postponed for election and re-activated on Sunday of election result

After the crime was carried out, Fredu rang up Toni to convene a meeting with CC at Ferdinands the following Sunday. CC didn’t turn up. After a few days, they were caught.

After they were caught, Fredu instructed his brother Mario to tell Melvin to seek out Toni to give CC the message that the promised license should be given to Fredu’s sister.

David Gatt visited Mario and told him ‘now they can take the pledge, go to Cardona and take things too far’ (jdardru l-alla).

Now I’m going to get to my story with Melvin.

Once, I̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶ ̶c̶o̶f̶f̶e̶e̶ ̶a̶t̶ ̶P̶o̶r̶t̶o̶m̶as̶o̶ , I was at a lunch on my farm and Melvin was there. H̶e̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶s̶i̶t̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶d̶o̶w̶n̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶a̶s̶k̶e̶d̶ ̶m̶e̶ ̶w̶h̶e̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶’̶I̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶h̶o̶r̶s̶e̶s̶’̶.̶ ̶I̶ ̶t̶o̶l̶d̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶ ̶I̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶M̶a̶l̶t̶a̶ ̶a̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶m̶o̶m̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶b̶e̶c̶a̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶o̶n̶l̶y̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶e̶v̶e̶s̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶e̶…̶ ̶I̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶e̶v̶e̶r̶y̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶o̶v̶e̶r̶s̶e̶a̶s̶.̶ ̶H̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶f̶e̶r̶e̶d̶ ̶m̶e̶ ̶a̶ ̶c̶o̶f̶f̶e̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶I̶ ̶s̶a̶t̶ ̶d̶o̶w̶n̶ ̶n̶e̶x̶t̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶.̶

Discussion turned to DCG’s writings. At one point he asked me ‘What is she doing to you? They’re saying things about you’. I remember telling him that she’s getting everyone sick to the core (qazzet zobb kullhadd) –  i̶f̶ ̶I̶ ̶c̶o̶u̶l̶d̶,̶ ̶I̶ ̶w̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶b̶e̶a̶t̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶u̶p̶. He told me ‘don’t worry my friend, you’re strong enough’

A̶f̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶d̶i̶s̶c̶u̶s̶s̶i̶o̶n̶,̶ ̶I̶ ̶l̶e̶f̶t̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶a̶ ̶m̶e̶e̶t̶i̶n̶g̶.̶ ̶A̶f̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶a̶r̶o̶u̶n̶d̶ ̶3̶ ̶w̶e̶e̶k̶s̶ ̶o̶r̶ ̶a̶ ̶m̶o̶n̶t̶h̶, I found him waiting for me inside t̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶a̶m̶e̶  a cafeteria at Portomaso and he invited me over for a coffee at ‘P̶o̶r̶t̶o̶m̶a̶s̶o̶  a cafe’ on Table One. He called me over as soon as he saw me arriving to work. We sat down, he ordered me a coffee and told me ‘Listen, my friend, DCG is done… it’s in my hands’. I told him ‘No, no, my friend – I don’t do these things.’

I stood up and left the shop. A few days later, he picked me up in his taxi from the airport. 

Melvin told me that ‘I already paid [€]30,000.’ I told him ‘No, no, my friend – stop everything in its tracks because I don’t want trouble’.

Melvin told me ‘As if. Do you think these people will stop? These are very dangerous people and one cannot take them for a ride. I told him t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶c̶a̶n̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶e̶  (illegible handwriting) for the 30,000 w̶h̶e̶n̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶w̶a̶n̶t̶s̶ but he must stop everything because I didn’t want trouble. I̶ ̶g̶o̶t̶ ̶u̶p̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶l̶e̶f̶t̶.

In fact, I gave him 50 [€50,000] from my office that day but I was clear with him. Stop everything.

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After a week, I found him waiting near my usual parking space. He came to the car door and told me ‘They don’t want to stop and will keep on going. Give me another 1̶2̶0̶,̶0̶0̶0̶ (100,000). I told him that I̶ ̶w̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶g̶i̶v̶e̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶ ̶3̶0̶,̶0̶0̶0̶ I gave him 50,000 so that he doesn’t end up losing money himself but that I wasn’t going to pay another pound because I had absolutely nothing to do with it.

After the crime took place, I found Melvin near the Hilton roundabout with another car with tinted windows behind him and he told me to bring him 120,000 because there were some people who wanted it.

Theuma ran the taxi stands at Hilton: Tearful middleman tells court: I once gave lift to Caruana Galizia many years back

I told him absolutely not – I had no reason to pay money for something that I had absolutely nothing to do with.

The two cars drove off after each other. I obviously thought about filing a police report but I was scared. In the next week, no one spoke to me and I thought my problems were gone.

However, a week later, they came to visit me again, this time to my house, and I got scared. Melvin had two other people with him, both wearing caps.

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He asked me for money once again. He told me to give me 120,000 or else ‘I would go through what she [Caruana Galizia] went through’. I got scared and told him to give me two days’ time. I thought of ways to give him 150,000 and I gave them [in implements] of 55,000, 60,000 and 35,000.

After I paid him, I told him not to approach me again. After a month, I heard that they got caught and I felt relieved.

A few days after they were caught, I once again found Melvin with another person, who I didn’t recognize, at Portomaso. He got out of the car, approached me to my face and told me ‘You ratted them out, you faggot (pufta)? You just got yourself in more shit’ – I told him I couldn’t rat out people I don’t even know.

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Around a week later, as soon as I drove up to Portomaso, he once again came up to me. There was another person who I didn’t recognise with him who raised up his shirt in a manner that signified that he had a pistol. He told me to drive behind him. He drove towards Ħaż-Żebbuġ – once there, he made me open the ranch where my horses are kept, and he walked in after me.”

Schembri knew Theuma: Here they smile in a photo taken at his Castille office

We walked inside [a ranch in Ħaż-Żebbuġ where Fenech keeps his horses] to talk and he [Melvin Theuma] told me that he wants to record me to give himself some kind of guarantee. I told him that I don’t know about these things and that this wasn’t my world. I told him that we can do whatever’s necessary, just so long as he leaves me alone. We started meeting up at the ranch.

He used to arrive in a black Vitz and always leave another person in the car behind him. He would switch on his recorder and give me a paper, he would keep a paper for himself and make me repeat what he wanted me to say. He would bring out a grey recorder and place it on the table. I obviously knew that he was recording me.

This started taking place twice to three times a week. Once, for the recording to seem more credible, he wanted my children to be there with us. That touched a nerve and I started crying. I told him not to involve my family. And then I just up and took a holiday with my family.

He kept calling me while I was on holiday; he told me that he’ll pick me up from the airport himself and that he’ll take a recording inside the car.

After I returned from my holiday, more recordings were taken. He started telling me that he has an entire novel about me. And he started approaching me for [money], sometimes 20 times a month and sometimes twice a month. I estimate that I gave him over 450,000.

The recordings took place so they could do their utmost to fleece as much money from me as possible. He started blackmailing me to allow him to operate another taxi at the Hilton and I had to allow him to do so.

They blackmailed me so that I don’t appeal the direct order that was given to the Westin Casino, which cost my business millions of euros.

Around a month ago, he stated blackmailing me to write him a cheque to lend him two million euros to make up for his own illegal money. I refused to do so.

I had to go on several holidays because he kept coming to me for money. He made me spiral into a drug addiction and I had to go to rehab twice.

When he couldn’t reach me, he would call my wife and ask for me, or he would call my uncle Ray and my cousin Karl to find out where I was.

A few days before the police caught Melvin, he had come to my tower and asked me for another 30,000 – and I had to comply. Before he left, I told him that this won’t continue and that I will have to inform the police. Then what happened happened.

I was never scared of justice. I was scared for my family, my business and my life from the dangerous blackmail that was imposed by Melvin and the people behind him.

I now understand that Melvin was cooking something up with Cardona and that they tried to pin it on me so that they could get rid of me and fleece me of more money.”