Two of the people who allegedly murdered Daphne Caruana Galizia are facing separate (so to say) charges of extensive money laundering. If a fraction of what was said in court is true, the press ought to be falling over each other to scream ‘J’Accuse …!’ at a score of institutions.

Alfred Degiorgio is charged with having deposited hundreds of thousands in various casinos in Malta. He is said to have owned a fleet of expensive cars, as well as a boat which was not a frejgatina.

His brother, George, was equally upfront about his worth. He is charged with having wired sums to the tune of tens of thousands to overseas accounts, a habit which does not seem to have dented his ownership of fast cars and boats. Debono’s penchant for large money transfers appears to have been shared by his partner, Anca Adelina Pop. Pop could also choose between a Corvette, an Audi, and a Mercedes when popping down to the local branch to deposit huge sums.

That’s the general idea, but details have emerged in court that should have us all reaching for the closest sturdy piece of furniture. First, and by their own admission in court, none of the three have ever found the time to hold down a proper job. Pop has been known to ‘entertain’ part-time, Alfred Degiorgio did a stint as a security guard in a previous life, and George Degiorgio went aristocratic in 1983.

Second, the prosecution said in court that all the transactions involved cash. Pop, for example, was unemployed when she opened an account with Lombard Bank in 2016 – no reason, therefore, for her to refrain from depositing tens of thousands in round figures, in cash.

Third, certainly the Degiorgio brothers – and presumably Pop, by osmosis – were known to the police at the time of arrest, and had been for a long time.

Fourth, an inspector told the court that police investigations into their lifestyle and possessions had only kicked off as a result of the Caruana Galizia case.

To not ask questions about protection is to grant perpetual anonymity to those who appear to have delivered the Degiorgios to justice, but who really should be with them in the dock

The last bit is jaw-dropping. We now know that it is possible, in Malta, to be habitually unemployed with no apparent income, to spend conspicuously, to move around stacks of cash, to do all of this and God knows what else for many years while known to the police, and not be investigated. If that sounds surreal, it’s exactly what the inspector said in court.

There’s more. Last Friday, the witnesses included a host of dealers who said they had sold cars to the Degiorgios, and to third parties. Many of them had problems remembering how many tens of thousands they had sold Audi X for, if Corvette Y had cost €94,000, and so on. Understandable, given how much of this seems to be going on, in cash.

Now I’m not terribly interested in the Degiorgios’ lifestyles, or in how much money they had. I am, however, hugely intrigued that it is at all possible for anyone to do what they did, for a long time, under the noses of the institutions. Readers who have deposited or spent modest money, and who found themselves having to explain where it came from to the cent, will understand my puzzlement.

It’s very hard not to suspect that the Degiorgios were protected. It’s also very hard not to infer that the collusion between power and dishonest money (and, in some cases, crime) extends well beyond this case. I repeat, the only reason why we know of this case is the Caruana Galizia murder. It would be too much of a coincidence if the Degiorgios were an exception.

Which leads me to three conclusions. First, that the raid at the Marsa potato shed – the amphibious assault, the guns, the balaclavas, and so on – was a kummiedja. I use the Maltese word because it is a wonderfully apt amalgam of ‘farce’ and ‘circus’, with a dash of choreography.

I don’t think I’m being hyperbolic. Watching the raid through the barrel-mounted cameras, as we did, one would have thought that it was a major breakthrough by the police, and that here were people who no one could have suspected were crooks.

In fact, we now know that the opposite was the case. It is nothing for the police to be proud of when they arrest a bunch of unemployed people whose big spending in plain sight goes back years. On the contrary, it’s an indictment of those many years of twisted tolerance.        

The second conclusion is that there are circles of dirty money that carry on without so much as bothering to hide. When someone who is routinely unemployed and hasn’t inherited money can swan about in a car that costs as much as a small house, it really is not a matter of flying under the radar. Rather, it’s a case of a conveniently poor-quality radar.

Pop had an account with a well-known bank, and both money transfers and casino deposits are quite easily traceable. The Degiorgio case offers a glimpse, to common citizens who wouldn’t normally know such things, of a dark and vigorous undercurrent of big money, crime and protection.

The last is especially worrying since it usually means people who are close to, or even part of, State institutions. That the protection goes back many years, and is therefore not a monopoly of the present government, only makes matters worse.

Finally, the goings-on in court raise the possibility that the Caruana Galizia bombing was not commissioned after all. If the charges turn out to be solid, the need for a hidden all-powerful hand would begin to appear rather flimsy. It would appear, in fact, that the Degiorgios and their associates are no small fry.

I emphasise ‘and their associates’. To not ask questions about protection is to grant perpetual anonymity to those who appear to have delivered the Degiorgios to justice, but who really should be with them in the dock.

mafalzon@hotmail.com

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