Corruption charges are being drawn up against the former head of the police’s anti-money laundering unit.
The police had reached out to the attorney general’s office on how best to proceed after closing off an investigation into former superintendent Ray Aquilina, sources told Times of Malta. It is understood that the police investigation was run by a team set up to probe leaks from the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder case.
That investigation, sources said, has concluded that Aquilina should face a raft of criminal charges, from tax evasion to corruption, over his relationship with alleged Caruana Galizia murder conspirator Yorgen Fenech.
Aquilina was arrested in April after police received the conclusions of a magisterial inquiry into leaks from the murder case.
Questions sent to Aquilina early last week remain unanswered.
Last month, Times of Malta reported that police were probing a plan for a suspicious property deal involving the former police superintendent and Fenech.
Officers from the police’s anti-money laundering unit, formerly Aquilina’s own office, believe that a Birżebbuġa apartment worth in excess of €180,000 was set to be sold to Aquilina’s parents for around a third of its market value by Fenech in 2018.
The plan being investigated by police was for the property to change hands for some €60,000.
Sources said the apartment was then to be donated to Aquilina by his parents in what police suspect may be a case of bribery and money laundering.
The apartment was originally owned by property magnate Joe Portelli who was taken in for police questioning over the matter. Times of Malta understands Portelli is no longer a person of interest to the case. The developer has never responded to questions sent.
In spring of 2018, when the property plan was hatched, an FIAU report had named Fenech as the owner of offshore company 17 Black and was sent to the police’s anti-money laundering unit.
In December 2018, the police unit, headed by Aquilina at the time, sent a request for information to Dubai as part of the investigation into the FIAU report.
That request, however, was never taken seriously by the Dubai authorities as it contained incorrect information.
Last month, Times of Malta also reported that the police had secured phone intercepts and surveillance footage that back up investigators’ theory that Aquilina was supplying parties to the Caruana Galizia murder with sensitive insider information.
Sources said that in 2019, Aquilina had visited the offices of Fenech at Portomaso, although this was not logged in visitor entries taken at the front desk. At the time of the visit, Aquilina was responsible for the unit that gathered sensitive information on players believed to be involved in money laundering.
Aquilina had also been spotted walking into the Qormi office of Johann Cremona a number of times during police surveillance operations in the summer of 2019. Cremona is a business associate of Fenech and is believed to have acted as an interlocutor between the alleged murder conspirator, self-confessed middleman Melvin Theuma, and former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri.