A couple suspected of laundering millions of euro were on Thursday granted bail against a €50,000 deposit and €150,000 personal guarantee each.

Gordon Debono and his wife Yvette spent the past three weeks under preventive custody after pleading not guilty upon their arraignment on November 25.

The couple were back in court on Wednesday afternoon for the first hearing of the compilation of evidence but following lengthy testimony by prosecuting Inspector Omar Caruana about the nature of the investigations into voluminous financial data relating to their bank accounts as well as other documents recording property transfers, no specific ‘predicate offence’ could be identified.

According to the bail decree, the couple have been bound by an 8pm curfew and they have to sign the bail book twice a day.

Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech said bail was being granted because the case is based entirely on documents and there is no real fear of tampering with evidence.

Confidential information had sparked investigations against the couple back in 2013, under a joint operation with Europol and the Italian Guardia di Finanza, named Operation Proteus.

Those investigations had revealed that Gordon Debono had a Satabank account which received some €530,000 over two years, from sources including Petroplus and Petroplus Trading Ltd, two of the 11 companies where the couple held directorship roles.

That account was closed in March 2018.

Investigations also traced numerous cheques made out to Shaun Higgins, a stevedore working for Debono, who was charged separately with money laundering.

The total value of cheques cashed by Higgins was allegedly over €7.1 million, the court was told.

Acting under a search and arrest warrant, police had seized electronic devices from the couple’s home and some 30 vehicles belonging to Debono and his wife, who, in spite of claiming that she had held no employment for the past eight years, had purchased some €1.7 million worth of property in Cyprus.

Under interrogation, her husband had allegedly told police that he earned some €5,000 a month out of rented properties, but was unable to list those properties.

Inspectors Joseph Xerri, Omar Caruana and James Turner prosecuted, assisted by AG lawyers Elaine Mercieca and Cinzia Azzopardi Alamango.

Lawyer Roberto Montalto was defence counsel to Gordon Debono, while lawyer Joe Giglio assisted Yvette Debono.