Court proceedings against Adrian Hillman, the former chairman of Progress Press, continued on Wednesday, with representatives of two printing companies being summoned to testify about HP printing machines as prosecutors sought to compare prices with identical machinery used by Progress Press.
Hillman stands accused of money laundering, criminal conspiracy, fraud to the detriment of Progress Press Ltd and Malta Enterprise, making a false declaration to a public authority and accepting bribes.
Prosecutors believe Progress spent millions of dollars more on buying printing machines from Kasco than it should have, with suspected backhanders being traced to accounts controlled by Hillman, former Progress Press chairman Vince Buhagiar, Kasco owner Keith Schembri and Schembri's business partner Malcolm Scerri.
The summoning of the printers triggered objections by the defence, who insisted they were unrelated to the case as their business was not the same as that of Progress Press in terms of volume of work and economies of scale.
“This case will never be wrapped up if you choose to go down that route! I’ll summon all those persons who make use of HP printers,” exclaimed defence lawyer Stefano Filletti.
Antoine Agius Bonnici, a lawyer at the Attorney General's office, explained that the two companies had been selected following an exercise conducted by the prosecution in view of one of the charges relating to the grant given to Progress Press by Malta Enterprise and allegations that prices were inflated.
The witnesses, he said, were only being asked to supply factual information for the purpose of comparing costs in relation to the same type of printing machinery as that used by Progress Press.
Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech said that the court would allow questioning to proceed as long as the witnesses were not asked to express an opinion.
Eric Debono, director of a Gozo printing press, testified first about an HP printing machine purchased in 2020 from Kasco Ltd, explaining how the system operated on clicks which were registered on a counter.
Data from that counter was then transmitted to HP at the end of each month and an invoice would then be issued to the printing company by Kasco, according to the number of clicks.
The company was not invoiced on the basis of consumables but rather in terms of clicks, over and above a fixed maintenance agreement.
Filletti questioned how the operations of this printing press, that was alien to the proceedings, could be drawn into a money laundering case of a national scale.
The testimony was irrelevant not only for the purpose of the money laundering charges but also for the comparison intended by the prosecution.
“Such comparison cannot be done because there was no similarity between the modest operation of Debono and that of Progress Press,”concluded Filletti.
However, Agius Bonnici rebutted that the testimony was relevant to show how the machine worked, since it was the same as that purchased by Progress from Kasco Group.
Ronald Mifsud, managing director of Impressions Ltd, testified next along the same lines about the working of an HP printer purchased directly from the manufacturer in 2002.
His testimony was followed up with a request by the defence for prosecuting Inspector Joseph Xerri to present a list of all persons who had acquired printing machines identical to those mentioned by the witnesses and to give an account accordingly.
Earlier in the hearing, two police officers tasked with executing an extradition order issued by a Magistrates’ Court in May 2021 against Hillman, testified how they had taken a flight to London Heathrow Airport on May 28 to escort Hillman to Malta after the UK authorities gave the green like for his extradition.
The case continues in February.
Lawyers Stefano Filletti and Mark Refalo are defence counsel.