Ex-minister Clayton Bartolo and his wife Amanda Muscat have been hit with a temporary asset freeze as part of a corruption probe into suspicious payments received by her.
Bartolo resigned as tourism minister in November, hours before Times of Malta revealed how the payments were suspected kickbacks for a Malta Tourism Authority contract given to Italian cyclist Valerio Agnoli.
Muscat received a total of €50,000 from a Swiss company managed by Agnoli called A&O Opportunity.
A police corruption investigation was triggered following a report by the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit detailing the suspicious nature of the payments.
NGO Repubblika wrote to the Attorney General and the Police Commissioner demanding court action soon after the revelations in the FIAU report.
A court in December upheld a request by the attorney general for a temporary freeze on Bartolo’s and Muscat’s assets, known as an attachment order, due to suspicions of money laundering.
Attachment orders are designed to stop suspects from transferring funds or properties while they are under police investigation.
Agnoli and the Swiss company were also named in the attachment order.
Bartolo insists the payments were for genuine work carried out by his wife for Agnoli’s company.
Investigators, however, suspect the payments may have been a way to disguise kickbacks for the MTA contract.
'Voluntarily handed all relevant documents'
When contacted by Times of Malta, Bartolo said that he and his wife had voluntarily handed over all the relevant documents to the authorities.
“… it is our priority to effectively iron out any doubts or questions that might be present,” he said.
“It remains our aim to clear the air in relation to any suspicion as soon as possible so that we can conclude this chapter in our life once and for all.”
The ex-minister said attachment orders are a precautionary measure, the norm in any investigation of a financial nature.
Agnoli was hired by the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) in 2021 on an “ad hoc” basis to promote cycling tourism.
'All-inclusive remuneration of €20k'
The arrangement was formalised in 2023, with Agnoli being put on what a Tourism Ministry spokesperson described as an “all-inclusive remuneration of €20,000 per annum”.
It included co-ordinating activities with various other cycling groups and to “advise the authority on the international cycling world”.
Muscat was given an “assignment” by A&O Opportunity in 2023.
The work consisted of Muscat “assisting” in a number of cycling related international initiatives in Equatorial Guinea, Italy, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the Tourism Ministry said last year.
The ministry had said the “assignment had absolutely nothing to do with Malta and bore no relation with the work being done by Agnoli for the MTA”.
Prime Minister Robert Abela took the decision to force Bartolo out as a minister and Labour MP over the payments.
Abela said that would allow Bartolo to “be better placed to defend himself” from the allegations.