Progress Press has initiated legal proceedings to recoup US$5 million from Keith Schembri and two of its former top officials.
The company said in a statement released on Wednesday that it had filed judicial protests in court against Schembri, who formerly served as chief of staff at the Office of the Prime Minister, Adrian Hillman and Vincent Buhagiar.
The action comes after police began criminal proceedings against Schembri and Buhagiar for alleged bribery and money laundering and extradition proceedings for UK-based Hillman, linked to a massive investment undertaken by the printing company.
Progress Press is a subsidiary of Allied Group, publishers of Times of Malta.
A court heard last month how prosecutors had traced large sums of money moving into bank accounts controlled by Schembri, Hillman and Buhagiar and believed that Progress Press had significantly overpaid for machinery it bought from Schembri’s company Kasco.
At the time, Hillman served as the company's managing director while Buhagiar was chairman of the Progress Press board.
The company said that Schembri, Hillman, Buhagiar, as well as co-accused Malcolm Scerri, Alfio Schembri and Kasco Engineering Ltd pocketed a total of US$5 million from a US$13.5 million deal the company had struck in 2008.
It said that the deal had been approved “in good faith” by Progress’ board of directors, who were presented with the relevant bids by Hillman and Buhagiar.
“From evidence presented in court, the company now understands that it was the victim of an illicit, secretive and abusive side deal that took place behind the backs of the company’s directors for the personal benefit of Keith Schembri and its two former managing directors,” Progress Press said.
The company said it was now seeking compensation for what it described as corruption “which has caused significant pecuniary harm to Progress Press and Allied Newspapers, publisher of the Times of Malta.”
It added that it looked forward to justice being served against “the real perpetrators of crimes”.
Progress Press is also facing charges of fraud and money laundering in a separate criminal case linked to printing press investment.
Prosecutors say that the company had in 2013 fraudulently inflated funds it was eligible to receive from Malta Enterprise, by including consumables in its funding application.
A Malta Enterprise official who was responsible for vetting the funding application testified this month that consumables were listed in the company's application but not costed.
The official said he had not asked for further details about them before making his recommendation to approve the funding application.