A company jointly owned by Keith Schembri and his wife Josette Schembri Vella is being chased by the authorities for €266,000 in unpaid tax.

Schembri Vella and 3City Design were served notice of the unpaid tax dues in December. After the taxes remained unpaid despite the notice, a court issued a garnishee order to sequester the amount due to the taxman.

3City Design is also the subject of a freezing order, with both the company and Schembri Vella facing money-laundering charges.

The company was behind Schembri Vella’s Loft brand, which investigators suspect was used as a front for money laundering.

Schembri Vella denies the charges.

In February, Schembri Vella took to the courts herself to demand repayment of a €12,390 debt owed to 3City Design by Karl and Diane Izzo, the couple behind the Dizz Group empire.

She sought to enforce the debt by issuing a precautionary warrant on the Izzo’s local bank accounts. The dispute was apparently settled this month, with a court lifting the warrant.

The Izzos are good friends of ex-prime minister Joseph Muscat and his wife Michelle.  3City Design is 50 per cent owned by Schembri’s company Kasco. Schembri and Kasco also face money-laundering charges linked to a suspected kickbacks scheme.

He too denies the charges.

According to court testimony, 3City Design did not have its own in-house accounts system, instead relying on Kasco’s financial controller.

Last year, Schembri was also chased for unpaid income tax dating back to 2012, the year before he entered government as then-prime minister Joseph Muscat’s chief of staff.

It is unclear why the tax authorities only decided to chase the unpaid taxes a decade later.

Schembri stepped down as chief of staff in November 2019, after spending years being protected by Muscat despite his suspected involvement in multiple corruption schemes.

Neither Schembri nor Muscat have faced charges for these suspected schemes.