A suspected money launderer used insiders at Transport Malta and LESA to erase up to €3 million in traffic contraventions that his car hire company owed, Jason Azzopardi alleged in parliament on Wednesday.

The Nationalist MP claimed that Christian Borg and the two insiders ran the Goldcar racket for six years, starting in 2014.

In an adjournment speech that also raised questions about Borg’s ties to Prime Minister Robert Abela, Azzopardi listed number plates of cars that allegedly had traffic tickets erased and said he could name the insiders to the police, if asked to.

Borg, a 28-year-old whose business interests centre on car hire and purchase companies, is among five people facing charges of having abducted and beaten a man last month. They are all pleading not guilty to the charges. 

Times of Malta has reported that police are investigating the group on suspicion that they used their car dealerships to launder drug money.

Borg previously ran the Goldcar car rental franchise in Malta, and the allegations made by Azzopardi in parliament on Wednesday focused on that company.

The racket, Azzopardi claimed, focused on tourists who rented Goldcar vehicles and received traffic tickets while in the country.

Tourists would pay those contraventions directly to the car hire company when returning their vehicles. But rather than pass on those payments to the authorities, Borg had his insiders delete contraventions from government systems.

Azzopardi alleged that up to €3 million in contraventions had been erased in six years using this method.

His claims raise further questions about LESA’s internal systems and come two months after Times of Malta reported that an agency official had erased hundreds of fines for politicians, top officials and businesspeople.

“I am willing to give the police all the details of everyone involved in this racket, if they ask me to,” the PN MP said.

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