Adrian Hillman is seeking compensation from Allied Newspapers for what he claims is unfair dismissal in a case filed in front of the Industrial Tribunal.

The case was filed today, four months after he resigned from the company after he was suspended in March when his name cropped up in the Panama Papers affair. Mr Hillman was managing director of Allied Newspapers and non-executive chairman of sister company Progress Press Ltd at the time of his suspension. 

Mr Hillman claims that he resigned from employment with the company on May 25 after he was left in limbo and never formally notified of any disciplinary action being taken against him.

In a statement the board of directors of Allied Newspapers “robustly” rejected the claims of unfair dismissal made by Mr Hillman.

“The company reserves the right to present its position at law and the correct version of the facts in the reply which will be presented by the company before the Industrial Tribunal on being officially notified of Mr Hillman’s application,” the statement said.

In March, blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia had alleged on her blog that Mr Hillman had received kickbacks from the Prime Minister’s chief of staff Keith Schembri, who owns Kasco Ltd, a paper supplier, for awarding work contracts at Progress Press to Kasco.

Mr Hillman and Mr Schembri had denied the accusations. Both men's names had appeared in the Panama Papers affair, for owning offshore companies in secretive jurisdictions. Allied Newspapers had suspended Mr Hillman and set up an independent internal inquiry to look into the allegations.

Mr Hillman is now claiming that he was never formally notified of any investigation in his regard and never heard anything from the company until he was summoned by the inquiry board to appear in front of it on May 6.

Mr Hillman said this was the first time he was informed of the existence of the board and insisted on being officially informed what was being alleged in his regard.

He claimed the company’s lack of response put him in an “unsustainable position, effectively dismissing him without informing him so”.

On May 25, Mr Hillman offered his resignation from the company, claiming that he had no choice because the company had dismissed him. “The fact that things were left pending for so long was prejudicing his health and that of his family,” the application said.