Former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri was snapped with alleged kidnapper Christian Borg at Auberge de Castille in 2018.  

The picture, uploaded by Borg on social media, shows him with the controversial political figure in one of the main rooms of former prime minister Joseph Muscat’s offices.

Contacted on Thursday, Schembri said he had no memory of meeting Borg or of what may have been discussed.

“I must have taken hundreds of similar photos with the countless visitors to the OPM during my years there,” he said. 

Borg and his associates came to public attention last month when he was arraigned, charged with the violent kidnapping of another man. 

He is also the subject of a police investigation into possible money laundering and narcotics. 

Times of Malta on Sunday reported that he had been involved in a property deal with Prime Minister Robert Abela. 

It has since emerged that Abela’s wife made use of a luxury car registered to Borg.

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

Borg is not the first notorious character pictured with Schembri at Castille. The former chief of staff was famously pictured with Melvin Theuma, the self-confessed middleman in Daphne Caruana Galizia's murder. 

Schembri had resigned after the arrest of Yorgen Fenech who went on to link the former chief of staff to the journalist's murder. Schembri denies the accusations. 

Keith Schembri with Melvin Theuma.