A representative from the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit was momentarily taken into custody on Monday morning after she refused to name Keith Schembri and Adrian Hillman while testifying in court. 

“You cannot pick and choose [what to testify about]," magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech told the FIAU representative as she ordered a court marshall to take her into custody for contempt of court. 

“I feel sorry for her. You put her in this situation,” the magistrate told lawyers from the attorney general’s office prosecuting the case.

The witness was summoned to testify in the case against Zenith Finance directors Matthew Pace and Lorraine Falzon, who face money laundering charges related to investigations into former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri. 

The FIAU representative told the court that the agency had fined MFSP – as Zenith was previously known - €38,750 in 2018 for administrative shortcomings after analysts noted “discrepancies” in the “basic and generic” information provided by the company. 

But when defence lawyer Mark Vassallo, citing a letter sent to the company by the FIAU, asked the witness to name two specific people with who MFSP had “established business relations in 2010 and 2011”, the witness refused, saying she could not divulge such information. 

Prosecuting lawyers from the attorney general’s office backed her stance, but Vassallo and fellow defence lawyer Edward Gatt would not. 

“They come here to wave about details about an administrative fine, which is a red herring for the media, and when we seek clarification they say they cannot testify,” said Gatt. 

Magistrate Frendo Dimech leaned in their favour.

“I cannot allow this and not that,” she said, stating that whoever had asked the FIAU to testify had pushed her into a hard spot. 

Witnesses waive their right to not disclose information when they agree to testify in court. 

With the witness steadfastly refusing to answer the defence’s question, the magistrate ordered her into court custody. 

The FIAU representative was eventually allowed back into the courtroom after lawyers agreed that she would be allowed to name the two people behind closed doors – but not before defence lawyer Gatt identified them himself, naming them as Keith Schembri and former Allied Group managing director Adrian Hillman. 

Both Schembri and Hillman are facing criminal charges in a separate court. 

Adrian Hillman and Keith Schembri.

As proceedings resumed, Gatt informed the court that he would be filing a constitutional case about the matter, but wanted criminal proceedings against his clients to continue at an expedited pace. 

A constitutional reference would normally suspend criminal proceedings. 

With calm restored, the magistrate thanked all parties for having worked quickly to sort out the issue. 

The case will continue in July. 

AG lawyers Antoine Mifsud Bonnici, Andrea Zammit and Sean Xerri de Caro assisted inspector Leanne Bonello.