Nine more companies connected to Keith Schembri and one individual have been added to a fresh court order to freeze the assets of the former prime minister's chief of staff.

The businesses, and an individual were initially omitted from the original court order issued on Monday. 

Some 91 people and companies have now been placed under the asset freeze that followed the conclusion of an inquiry into financial crimes. 

The attachment order was issued by madam justice Edwina Grima at the request of the attorney general and involves businesses and individuals linked to Schembri and his accountants at Nexia BT, Brian Tonna and Karl Cini.

Schembri, Cini and Tonna were all arrested this week. Schembri was released on police bail on Tuesday night after being held for almost 20 hours. 

A garnishee order was also placed on bank assets and the court issued freezing orders on movable and immovable property belonging to a number of people, including family members of the two men.

But after the original order was leaked, many questioned why some of Schembri’s companies seemed to have been missed and were not included.

The second freeze was issued on Tuesday, hours after Schembri had been arrested in connection with the investigation into an alleged €100,000 kickback he took on passport sales from Tonna. 

The alleged laundering of funds derived from kickbacks on passport sales first surfaced in an article by Daphne Caruana Galizia in April 2017, who was killed in a car bomb in October that year. 

Her son, Matthew Caruana Galizia, said that the new assets were only added to the list because the document was leaked.

"If that hadn't been done, the public wouldn't have been able to contribute the names of missing assets," he said.