Judge to decide first money laundering case in Maltese criminal history

A 34-year-old woman yesterday admitted her involvement in the money laundering of $164,000 (about Lm53,000) in what is considered to be the first case of the sort to be tried in the Maltese criminal courts.

Maria Abela, of Gzira, pleaded guilty to money laundering and forging documents during what was to be the beginning of her trial by jury presided over by Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono.

The judgment, to be delivered tomorrow, will be the first to deal with money laundering and will probably set the guidelines for upcoming cases, Assistant Attorney General Anthony Barbara noted during legal submissions.

Mr Justice Galea Debono noted that when drafting the law, the legislator had allowed a wide spectrum in terms of punishment for money laundering, ranging from no imprisonment to 14 years in jail and from no fine to the imposition of a Lm1 million penalty. "What sort of punishments are these?" the judge asked, adding that, technically, he could even hand down a suspended jail term.

He added that in handing down judgement he ought to think about future cases where the amount of money laundered could be much larger.

The bill of indictment to which Ms Abela admitted, noted that she had been involved in laundering $164,000.

The bill added that following extensive investigations with local and Swiss banks, in May 2004, the police learnt that $164,000 had been deposited into the account of a company called Alasram Holding Ltd, run by Ms Abela.

The company dealt in the import and export of several goods. It also resulted that, since January 2002, several transactions involving large sums of money had been made in the same bank account.

The police learnt that Ms Abela had been involved in a money laundering operation together with Rais Group of Companies, run by Italian Antonio Monaco and other foreigners. Together they tried to launder money that had been stolen from several Swiss companies.

Ms Abela was to receive 10 per cent of the transactions for her involvement.

Ms Abela's lawyer, Martin Fenech, argued that his client initially got involved in the matter, thinking it was a genuine business venture. In time, she started to suspect that the money had been obtained illegally. She had a choice to make and decided not to go to the authorities because she had been threatened, Dr Fenech said.

He added that Ms Abela was not the one who stole the money but played a minor part in the whole transaction. This ought to be reflected in the punishment.

He noted that the amount in question was not large.

It was of about Lm71,000 in total (according to the rate of exchange at the time) and the 10 per cent that were given to Ms Abela had gone to cover expenses she had incurred for the Italian company.

Dr Barbara, the prosecutor, said this was the first case of money laundering ever to be decided by the Criminal Court and the judge had a big responsibility because the judgment would set guidelines and will be quoted in future cases.

He noted that this was a very serious crime in which foreigners had used Malta to launder money and this was detrimental to the country's reputation.

The prosecution requested a minimum seven-year jail term, a Lm20,000 fine and the confiscation of Ms Abela's assets.