Former chief of staff Keith Schembri never paid money to Allied Newspapers Ltd, the company said on Monday.

Allied Newspapers, which publishes Times of Malta, said that "at no stage whatsoever did it ever receive any sum of money" from Schembri or his companies. 

"Neither did Allied Newspapers ever hold an offshore account in the British Virgin Islands as has been falsely alleged," it said.

The company was reacting to an article published by Illum in which the news outlet claimed that Allied Newspapers Ltd had received €690,000 from Schembri over a period of years more than a decade ago.

The article added that the company was under investigation for having defrauded state investment agency Malta Enterprise and said that the company's current managing director, Michel Rizzo, has been targeted for police investigation. 

The claims were made one day after Schembri, who served as chief of staff to prime minister Joseph Muscat between 2013 and 2019, pleaded not guilty to corruption, money laundering, fraud, criminal conspiracy and other charges. 

Schembri was one of 11 people charged that day, with others including his father, business partner, accountants and financial advisors, as well as Allied Newspapers former managing director Vince Buhagiar. They are all pleading not guilty. 

The charges stem from findings of two magisterial inquires into alleged corruption by Schembri, including one into claims that Schembri paid bribes to Adrian Hillman as part of  a business deal to sell a printing press to Progress Press, Allied Newspapers' sister company. 

Hillman was managing director of both companies at the time. 

In its statement, Allied Newspapers said that if Schembri passed money to two of its former managing directors (Hillman and Buhagiar) "then this was all done behind the back of the group and its board of directors".

It added that it had no knowledge of any irregularities in its funding application to Malta Enterprise, as alleged by Illum.

"All applications and subsequent contracts were always vetted and confirmed as being granted in line with the eligibility for such aid," it said. 

The company said it was "shocked" by the revelations involving its former managing directors.

"As the injured party in all of these unfortunate events, it is very disappointed by the outcome and looks forward to the course of justice," it said. 

It said it would continue to cooperate with authorities, as it had done in the magisterial inquiry into the Schembri-Hillman claims.