Nationalist Party deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami today reiterated his innocence in an investigation into possible money laundering by a firm whose parent company he had served as a director for. 

MaltaToday reported on October 9 that the police in 2012 did not hand over information to Dutch investigators about alleged money laundering by Capital One which, over a period of years, had seen several million euro being deposited in Malta from overseas companies. At the time Beppe Fenech Adami was a director of Baltimore Fiduciary, which owned CapitalOne.

The newspaper claimed that a file compiled by investigators in January 2013 was marked “bring up in three months” on January 31 that year.

The government subsequently ordered an independent inquiry to look into the allegations.

Giving evidence today, Dr Fenech Adami made a declaration stating that he never knew that a company he worked for was being investigated by the police until he was contacted by MaltaToday on October 8.

He said he had explained to the newspaper's executive editor Saviour Balzan that he had been a non-executive director of the company for some time but had resigned from the position some three years prior.

Dr Fenech Adami explained that when he was on Baltimore's board of directors he was never involved in the management or daily administration of the same company. Dr Fenech Adami said Mr Balzan asked him whether he knew that Capital One was being investigated by the police and if he had interfered in the investigations.

Dr Fenech Adami said his reply was that he did not know anything about Capital One, and that he did not know that this company had, at some point in time, been investigated by the police, much less so that he had interfered in the investigations.

He said he told Mr Balzan that he was hearing all this for the first time and he had no idea what he was talking about.

MaltaToday's story ‘Money laundering investigation was not pursued when Fenech Adami’s name cropped up” was published the day after.

The story included allegations that led to today’s inquiry being set up, Dr Feench Adami said.

The MaltaToday story, Dr Fenech Adami said, clearly stated that “there appears no smoking gun of irregularity for Beppe Fenech Adami”.

Dr Fenech Adami said that until he had spoken to Mr Balzan on October 8, he did not know what was being alleged - that the Dutch police had embarked on investigations on a certain Robert Soogea in November 2012 and that information from the Maltese police on Capital One had been requested as part of the investigation.

He said that from November 2012 to date, he had never been informed by the police or anyone else about the investigation and he had not spoken to anyone about what was being alleged in the newspaper.

Dr Fenech Adami said that he never abused from any position he held, never interfered in police work, and never interfered with any authority, including the office of the Auditor General, in their work.

He also never mixed with criminals, never knew of a crime or tried to hinder investigations and was never an accomplice with those who allegedly trafficked drugs and laundered money.

Dr Fenech Adami’s statement in full can be read in the pdf link below.

PL: No one believes that Fenech Adami did not know anything

In a reaction, the Labour party said that no one believed that Dr Fenech Adami did not know what was going on.

In his evidence Dr Fenech Adami had confirmed the most crucial point, that he was a director of Baltimore Fiduciary Services.

Millions were being funnelled through the company from Capital One. Capital One was undergoing a criminal investigation linked to laundering of money that stemmed from drug trafficking.

Dr Fenech Adami knew well enough as a lawyer, as well as a politician, that he had responsibilities to shoulder as the director of a fiduciary company. No one believed that he did not know what was going on, the PL said.

The PL said it would, however, await the outcome of an investigation currently being carried out by three former judges, and respect the outcome.