By Sabrina Zammit

• Ian Abdilla and Brian Paul Camilleri testified in the case involving Raymond Aquilina, Yorgen Fenech, and notary Mario Bugeja on the 24th of April.
• Abdilla recounted how he was instructed not to hand an FIAU report concerning Melvin Theuma to Raymond Aquilina, who was in charge of the investigation.
• An appointment set up for Abdilla and Aquilina to meet Fenech was aborted abruptly.
• The investigation was being delayed by difficulties in obtaining information from abroad.

A court has heard today how the then Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar specifically ordered that a sensitive financial report be kept hidden from a lead investigator in 2018. 

Testifying in the proceedings against former Superintendent Raymond Aquilina, Yorgen Fenech, and notary Mario Bugeja, the former lead of the police’s Economic Crimes Unit, Ian Abdilla, recounted how Cutajar directly ordered him to bypass Aquilina.

Fenech stands accused of money laundering and complicity in the corruption of a public officer, while Aquilina is facing charges of corruption, leaking official secrets, money laundering and perjury. Both men, together with notary Mario Bugeja who is also charged with money laundering, have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

“Deep discomfort”

Abdilla told Magistrate Lara Lanfranco on Friday that he was instructed to personally retrieve a Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) report concerning Melvin Theuma. According to Abdilla, Cutajar was explicit: the report was for his eyes only, and he was “not to hand it to Raymond Aquilina”.

Abdilla said that Cutajar’s order caused him deep “discomfort” as Aquilina was officially responsible for the anti-money laundering section of the Economic Crimes Unit. Abdilla testified that he repeatedly challenged the commissioner on the matter at the time, insisting that if there was a lack of trust in Aquilina, he should be removed from his post entirely. 

It emerged in court today that Aquilina had maintained a personal relationship with Fenech that was never officially declared. Abdilla testified that he later found out about the relationship through the media. 

The tension reached a breaking point just days before the high profile raid on Melvin Theuma, when Aquilina allegedly revealed intimate knowledge of the suspect’s medical history, claiming that Theuma was undergoing cancer treatment. The detail left Abdilla questioning how a sidelined investigator possessed such specific intelligence.

A cancelled meeting

The internal friction within the Economic Crimes Unit coincided with critical moments in the 17 Black Investigation, which officially began when the police opened the file in March 2018. Abdilla testified that after a newspaper report identified Yorgen Fenech as the owner of the mysterious UAE-registered company, he insisted on questioning the businessman immediately. 

At that point, disclosure laws had recently been introduced, requiring the police to challenge suspects under interrogation on the basis of evidence. Despite only having an FIAU report in hand – official bank documents had not yet been received from abroad – Abdilla argued that the public allegations were enough to warrant an interrogation. 

According to the testimony, an appointment was set up for Abdilla and Aquilina to meet Fenech at his own office, as instructed by then Deputy Police Commissioner Silvio Valletta. Abdilla believes that this meeting was arranged by Raymond Aquilina. 

However, the interrogation never took place. 

As the police team was driving toward the meeting, specifically as they approached the traffic lights near Paceville, they received a phone call informing them that Fenech “couldn’t speak to us because he was sick”. The meeting was aborted and Fenech was not arrested until much later, the witness said. 

While the financial probe into 17 Black stalled as Europol and Interpol requested rogatory letters, leading to the opening of a magisterial inquiry in September 2018, the Economic Crimes Unit was simultaneously navigating multiple investigations. Abdilla revealed that investigators were under “intense” pressure to move against Melvin Theuma, who was under investigation for financial crimes. 

Despite this pressure, Abdilla said that he and investigator Nicholas Vella, Aquilina’s subordinate, reportedly resisted a premature arrest. They argued that the FIAU report into Theuma’s activities, which they held at the time, was insufficient on its own to sustain his arrest. They insisted on waiting a few more weeks to gather more concrete evidence.

International scope

The scope of the investigation extended beyond Theuma and Fenech. The 17 Black investigation, which Aquilina was officially leading, included a list of high-profile “persons of interest,” including former Minister Konrad Mizzi, Keith Schembri, Karl Cini, and Brian Tonna. 

To track the flow of money, the police had to engage in a lengthy international process, requesting rogatory letters, signed off by the presiding magistrate Charmaine Galea, to be sent to authorities in the UAE, Latvia, and Panama to track Fenech’s accounts. Abdilla confirmed that while some of these requests were successful, the investigation was often hindered by the requirement for formal translations and the refusal of foreign countries to share intelligence without official judicial requests. 

A question raised during the testimony concerned the official letters sent to the UAE to track one of Fenech’s accounts linked to 17 Black. Abdilla confirmed that there had been a “mistake” in some of these letters, for which Aquilina was responsible. When questioned by the prosecution, Abdilla admitted he was unsure if the error was a “genuine mistake or intentional”.

The court heard that Raymond Aquilina eventually handed over the 17 Black investigation files in April 2020 to inspectors Brian Paul Camilleri and Keith Vella.

Inspector Brian Paul Camilleri, a financial crimes investigator with the police and the lead investigator on this case, also took the witness stand on Friday. He confirmed the chronology of the investigation and the succession of investigators involved in the case.