Its outcome was not revealed, but the freezing order, which covers more than 100 companies and individuals was signed by Edwina Grima, the same magistrate who presided over the passports inquiry. Tonna has previously denied all wrongdoing, claiming the transfer was the repayment of a loan from Schembri.Ī magisterial inquiry into the allegations was concluded earlier this month. It was alleged in a 2016 report by a government agency, Malta’s financial intelligence analysis unit, that Tonna had taken payments from three Russians acquiring Maltese passports, and passed €100,000 (£92,000) from these funds to Schembri via a British Virgin Islands screen company belonging to the accountant. Tonna’s firm acted as a Maltese citizenship agent, helping sell passports to non-EU citizens. Fenech has denied complicity in the killing.Īt the request of the attorney general, the freezing order asks hundreds of financial institutions, stockbrokers, asset managers and even mobile phone companies operating in Malta to open their books to police investigators. The resignations followed the arrest and arraignment of Schembri’s close friend Yorgen Fenech, a gambling and property tycoon who is suspected by police of being the mastermind in the 2017 murder of the anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. Schembri resigned from his position as the prime minister’s top adviser in November, shortly before Muscat announced he too was stepping down.
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