Updated Saturday 8.45am
Construction tycoon Charles Polidano was arrested on Friday morning and taken in for questioning over suspected money laundering and corruption.
Polidano, known as Iċ-Ċaqnu, was arrested at his home and taken in for questioning at the police’s Financial Crime Investigation Department.
His son Gordon was also arrested.
Police sources told Times of Malta that the construction magnate had been taken in following a lengthy investigation into suspected money laundering and corruption.
He is suspected of having corrupted a senior official at a large entity through the sale of a property.
On Saturday, Polidano Bros told Times of Malta it was assisting the authorities to verify payments made to the company in a transaction in 2014 that involved a public deed.
It categorically denied any wrongdoing.
"The group is confident the authorities will be satisfied once these verifications have taken place. The group will continue to cooperate fully with the authorities."
Polidano, 62, is one of the richest men in the country.
His Polidano Group is one of the leading construction firms, regularly involved in major national infrastructure projects.
Last month, Times of Malta reported that he had made a massive € 20million payment to the authorities in a bid to settle decades of unpaid taxes.
The deal was struck after some two years of talks with the Inland Revenue Department.
In 2020, Polidano had racked up €30.4 million in unpaid taxes on his flagship company Polidano Brothers Limited.
Since then, he is understood to have settled two smaller tax bills of €6.3 million and €1.2 million, stemming from other companies he owns, which have also long been outstanding. These were also being discussed with the authorities at the time.
Two years ago, Polidano had been ordered to settle the amount or face the possibility of court action.
What had followed were some 24 months of fraught negotiations with the authorities.
The following year, in 2021, Polidano had come close to negotiating a deal with the government that would have seen his tax dues partly set off against the sale of a large plot of land he had made to the government’s Housing Authority.
That deal had been rejected.
Polidano had then been placed on a ‘blacklist’ which was meant to preclude him from bidding for government contracts.
To be eligible to bid for government tenders, interested parties are meant to be up to date with their payments to the fiscal authorities.
In March of this year, Times of Malta reported how Infrastructure Malta had revoked two multi-million Euro tenders due to his lack of tax compliance.
Polidano had won tenders to carry out €11.8 million worth of construction works to extend the Marsamxett ferry landing as well as a €19.7 million tender for the upgrading of Lascaris Wharf.
However, both contracts were revoked.
Sources said that, for years, Polidano and other industry players, would circumvent this requirement by routinely entering tax repayment plans, only to stop honouring them once they secured another major government contract.