Two former Zenith Finance directors facing money laundering charges have opted to go to trial instead of being judged before the Magistrates’ Court.
The decision was communicated to Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech on Tuesday morning when proceedings against Matthew Pace and Lorraine Falzon returned to court for the ongoing compilation of evidence.
Pace and Falzon continue to face charges in spite of the fact that prosecutors knew "from day one" that they personally did not make illicit gains.
Their financial services company used to be worth €25 million before being targeted by money laundering charges and subsequently hit by a blanket freezing order that brought their business to its knees.
During a sitting last year, one of the investigating officers from the Anti-Money Laundering Squad testified that criminal charges had been issued against Pace and Falzon in their personal capacity despite the fact that no illicit gains were ever traced to their accounts.
The prosecution had known this “from day one,” Inspector Ian Camilleri had told the court, explaining that charges were drafted following collaboration between the Attorney General’s Office and the police.
That testimony triggered an immediate reaction by the defence.
Lawyer Edward Gatt had pointed out that the decision to press charges in that manner had destroyed his clients’ business and lives, and consequently whoever took such a decision would have to “shoulder personal responsibility.”
Last month, in separate proceedings filed by Pace and Falzon, the First Hall, Civil Court in its constitutional jurisdiction ruled that the State had breached the applicants’ fundamental rights by failing to provide the tools needed to extract data from Pace’s mobile phone.
That failure by the authorities had unnecessarily dragged out the money laundering proceedings, with time wasted while the prosecution insisted on getting the phone data.
The former directors’ lawyers argued that the prosecution was simply fishing for data.
Madam Justice Joanne Vella Cuschieri concluded that were it not for the difficulty in obtaining that electronic data, the prosecution could have wrapped up its case “in one-sixth of the time it has taken so far.”
When the criminal proceedings resumed on Tuesday the court asked the defence whether the accused were accepting to have their case decided by the Magistrates’ Court.
That was when lawyer Edward Gatt informed the court that the accused were opting to go to trial before the Criminal Court.
The Magistrate thus sent the records to the Attorney General for the bill of indictment to be issued accordingly. Lawyer Mark Vassallo also served as defence counsel.