Money laundering case against Aron Mifsud Bonnici dropped thanks to new law

Aron Mifsud Bonnici has walked free from money laundering and tax evasion charges thanks to a new government law allowing out-of-court settlements for tax crimes.  

Mifsud Bonnici, a close associate of ex-minister Konrad Mizzi, was facing up to 18 years' imprisonment for allegedly laundering over €1.4 million in funds linked to tax evasion.  

The charges, which he denied, were extinguished by a court on Friday after a tax official confirmed the lawyer had reached a settlement over his tax dues. 

Investigators and prosecutors spent years building a case against Mifsud Bonnici, and a court even ruled last year that there was enough evidence against the lawyer for him to stand trial for his alleged crimes.  

This all collapsed on Friday, when Tax & Customs Administration lawyer Vincienne Vella testified that Mifsud Bonnici is fully compliant with his tax dues.  

Given the settlement, magistrate Leonard Caruana ruled that the requisites for the new law to apply had been satisfied, and the case against Mifsud Bonnici was dropped.  

An asset freeze against the lawyer will also be lifted.  

Why was the case dropped? 

Last year, the government introduced a law allowing people caught evading tax to reach an out-of-court settlement with the tax authorities, therefore avoiding criminal prosecution.  

Under the law, people can settle their tax dues with the tax authorities and pay a fine ranging from €10,000 to €1 million.  

The law further extended to “connected breaches”, including money laundering, as in the case of Mifsud Bonnici.  

Mifsud Bonnici was charged with laundering money he had obtained from evading tax.  

A Times of Malta investigation detailed how €1.4 million in “suspicious” payments triggered the investigation into Mifsud Bonnici.  

The transfers, the bulk of which started in the summer of 2020, raised tax evasion and money laundering suspicions, as they appeared to exceed the lawyer’s expected wealth. 

Further red flags were raised due to Mifsud Bonnici’s previous involvement in numerous government entities, as well as his close ties with Mizzi, who resigned in November 2019 under a cloud of corruption.  

A deeper dive into Mifsud Bonnici’s local bank accounts led the authorities to flag notable differences between his declared income and the hundreds of thousands of euros that flowed into his bank accounts annually since 2016.  

Vitals case 

Although this case has been dropped, the lawyer still faces separate charges in the Vitals hospitals case.  

Mifsud Bonnici was among 14 people charged with fraud, misappropriation and fraudulent gain over a government €4 billion hospitals concession that was annulled by a court in 2023 on fraud grounds.  

All involved deny wrongdoing.   

A lawyer with close ties to Konrad Mizzi, Mifsud Bonnici served as board secretary of multiple entities under Mizzi’s portfolio during his time in office. 

Apart from representing Mizzi as his personal lawyer, Mifsud Bonnici also had three key posts linked to the Vitals deal: he was board secretary to the evaluations committee that recommended the company for the tender, he sat on the negotiation committee that negotiated the concession and also formed part of the steering committee that oversaw the process.