Adrian Hillman has been arrested in the UK and he will not object to extradition proceedings to face charges of major financial crime in Malta.
Sources told Times of Malta that Hillman was taken into police custody earlier this week on the back of an arrest warrant issued by the UK’s National Crime Agency. He was also arraigned in a UK court where a magistrate will decide on Malta’s request to have him extradited.
His lawyer Stefano Filletti said on Saturday that, since March, Hillman had “immediately” cooperated with the authorities.
“He made his whereabouts known to them from day one. This is simply because he has always intended to come to Malta voluntarily and clear his name of these accusations. He intends to fully cooperate with the authorities and is not contesting the extradition. The extradition process itself takes time and he will be returning.”
Earlier this month, the UK received all the paperwork required from Maltese authorities to back up the extradition of the former Allied Group managing director.
The request, first sent in March, had hit an initial snag when the UK authorities had requested further documentation before proceeding.
Hillman intends to fully cooperate with authorities
Police sources say they plan to press criminal charges against Hillman following the conclusion of a magisterial inquiry into the purchase of three multi-million-euro printing machines by Progress Press from Keith Schembri’s company Kasco Ltd a decade ago.
Progress Press is a subsidiary of Allied Newspapers, which is the publisher of Times of Malta.
Allegations of multi-million backhanders
Schembri, together with his business associates, financial advisers Nexia BT and Zenith Finance, formerly MFSP, are all facing a slew of criminal charges.
Vincent Buhagiar, chairman of Progress Press at the time of the major printing investment, has also been charged with having received backhanders from Schembri and laundering those illicit funds. All deny the accusations.
Hillman has been residing in the southeast London suburb of New Cross with his family and is pursuing studies at Goldsmiths University of London. The sources said this was the first extradition request that Malta filed since the UK’s departure from the EU took effect this year.
Sources had previously told Times of Malta that this case was “unchartered territory” as the judicial extradition process was still “hazy”. The new system is now regulated by the Brexit agreement between the UK and the EU.
According to a leaked Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit report, Schembri allegedly filtered over €650,000 to Hillman in over 30 “suspicious transactions” between 2011 and 2015.
Hillman was also found to have deposited €225,000 in cash into his HSBC account between January 2011 and February 2016.
The allegations of financial crime surrounding the two were first reported by Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2016. Hillman went on garden leave from Allied Newspapers and the company severed all ties with him shortly afterwards.
On Wednesday, Progress Press filed judicial protests in court against Schembri, Hillman and Buhagiar, to recoup some $5 million.