Accountant Joe Sammut accused the police officers investigating him for money laundering and fraud of “hindering foreign investment”, a magistrate heard yesterday.
The accusation was made as his Mosta offices were being searched for evidence in their case against him. The 58-year-old former Labour Party treasurer and candidate from St Paul’s Bay stands charged with helping Libyans set up companies in Malta in order to obtain residency permits using forged documents and fraudulent means.
He is also charged with misappropriation and non-observance of the due diligence expected of him in his professional capacity.
As the compilation of evidence against Mr Sammut continued yesterday, presiding Magistrate Doreen Clarke ruled there was sufficient prima facie evidence for Mr Sammut to be placed under a bill of indictment.
During the sitting, Police Superintendent Paul Vassallo and Police Inspector Jonathan Ferris, the prosecuting officers, took the witness stand to explain how their investigations had taken shape.
The investigation began whenCitizenship and Expatriate Affairs gave the police a list of 62 companies registered by Mr Sammut and all using the same14 addresses
They spoke about “entire volumes” of documents that they had seized from Mr Sammut’s office and then spending numerous hours examining them.
Superintendent Vassallo, from the police Economic Crimes Unit, said the investigation began when the Citizenship and Expatriate Affairs Department gave the police a list of 62 companies which had been registered by Mr Sammut and which all used the same 14 addresses.
Their investigation revealed that none of these companies were operating from any of these addresses.
The police also discovered that all the companies investigated, bar three or four, had circumvented the minimum share capital requirement of €100,000 by providing invoices of goods purchased from Maltese companies.
In one case, a company claimed that it had purchased €110,000 and €118,000 worth of medicines from a pharmacy but the owners confirmed that no such sales had taken place, Mr Vassallo said.
In another case, it was alleged that the company had purchased an entire container of canned Rio Mare tuna but it resulted that there was no such sale.
Inspector Ferris told the court that when the police first went to Mr Sammut’s office to carry out a search, the accountant accused the officers of “hindering foreign direct investment in Malta”.
Mr Ferris said he told Mr Sammut that none of the companies being investigated were operating from Malta so there was no investment at all.
The prosecution believes that Mr Sammut’s company failed to carry out a proper due diligence before companies were registered in Malta. Mr Ferris said Mr Sammut had told him that most of the companies could not be verified due to the situation in Libya.
But Mr Sammut also told him that since people know each other in Libya, he was using his contacts there to ask about applicants.
The court heard how Mr Sammut had two people who used to introduce those who were, according to them, eligible to set up a firm in Malta.
In court, Mr Sammut’s employees – Eva Calleja, Wendy Zammit and Charlotte Micallef – all refused to testify after they were warned by Magistrate Clarke that they had the right to remain silent as criminal action could be taken against them.
The Libyan director of a Maltese-registered company, Nureddin Mohammed Shaibi, 45, who lives in Gżira, refused to testify for the same reason.
The defence asked Mr Shaibi whether he was prepared to answer their questions, but he also refused.
Mr Shaibi was last week handed a suspended sentence after admitting to having presented false documents when importing food items from Libya.
The case will continue on October 9. Senior lawyer Michael Schiriha and lawyers Franco Galea, Simon Micallef Stafrace and Martin Fenech appeared for Mr Sammut.