VALLETTA. New judicial tile for Keith Schembri. The former head of cabinet of the Muscat government already appointed by the repentants of the Caruana case as suspected supporter of the principal Yorgen Fenech, was today formally indicted for money laundering, conspiracy, fraud, corruption, perjury and falsification of evidence. The accusation comes at the end of a judicial investigation that started with the discovery of payments made between 2010 and 2015 for 650 thousand euros on the offshore accounts of the former editorial director of the Times of Malta, Adrian Hillman. According to what emerged during the hearing, the bribe would have been paid by Kasko, the holding company of Schembri, after winning the contract for the Maltese newspaper. Schembri was indicted along with ten other people, including his father.
Today is the second charge for laundering against the former head of cabinet, after the one for corruption in the sale of Maltese passports for which he was arrested (and released on bail) last September. According to what emerged at the hearing, to make the payments Schembri used companies created in Gibraltar and in Switzerland, as well as an account of the Pilatus Bank, the banking institution created by the Iranian Ali Sadr, accused by the US for violations of sanctions against Iran. . The bank was closed by the ECB in 2018. Paul Caruana Galizia, son of the journalist killed on October 16, 2017, commented on today’s indictment of Schembri, writing on Twitter: «Absolutely extraordinary. For years @keitschembri has accused my mother of using false documents to implicate him in corruption cases. Now Schembri has just been charged with corruption, fraud, perjury, conspiracy and … forgery ».