Two Progress Press officials facing fraud and money laundering charges made no personal financial gains from the allegedly fraudulent application filed for a grant from Malta Enterprise, a police inspector testified on Monday.
Leanne Bonello, from the police anti-money laundering squad, told the court that after carefully analysing financial statements belonging to Progress Press managing director Michel Rizzo and former financial controller Claude Licari, the police found nothing to prove any financial gain.
She explained how in Rizzo’s case, there was a €4,500 incoming transaction which he could not explain but which the police did not pursue as there were no suspicions.
The goose and the gander
To read Allied’s statement that the State has now landed everyone in court, could be insinuated as some orchestrated campaign against the company or newspaper, is certainly hard to digest
Saviour Balzan
3 May 2021, 7:15am
Some five days before the 2017 election, then-Opposition leader Simon Busuttil testified for a good 90 minutes before Magistrate Josette Demicoli. Busuttil’s target was justifiably Keith Schembri, the former OPM chief of staff. He had said that he had presented the magistrate with irrefutable evidence of a clear case of graft involving the former top executive of the Allied Group, Adrian Hillman.
Allied Group has expressed its immeasurable surprise that the state took the decision to charge its managing director Michel Rizzo, and one of its companies, Progress Press, with fraud and money laundering offences.
The arraignment happened as a result of the investigation into graft between the chief of staff to the former prime minister, Keith Schembri, and former company officials Adrian Hillman and Vincent Buhagiar.
In a statement on Friday, Allied Group, which publishes
Times of Malta, stressed it has cooperated fully with the magisterial inquiry into the ongoing graft allegations and maintained it has been a victim of dealings that took place behind the backs of both Progress Press and the directors of all its companies.
Michel Rizzo suspends himself from Allied Group following money laundering charges
Allied Group said that it was immeasurably surprised by the charges brought against Rizzo on Thursday
30 April 2021, 2:55pm
by Nicole Meilak
Allied Group Managing Director Michel Rizzo has suspended himself from the position as he faces charges of fraud and money laundering.
In a statement on Friday, Allied Group said that it was surprised by the decision taken to charge Rizzo and Progress Press, one of its companies.
The charges are the result of an investigation into graft between former company officials Adrian Hillman and Vincent Buhagiar, and ex-OPM Chief of Staff Keith Schembri.
Allied Group managing director Michel Rizzo and the company’s former financial controller Claude Licari have been charged with money laundering and fraud.
The pair were arraigned in court on Thursday as part of a sprawling police investigation following the conclusion of a magisterial inquiry.
They were granted bail and spared from having their personal assets frozen. However, the assets of Progress Press, the printing subsidiary of the Allied Group, were frozen. Investigations were led by the police s Financial Crimes Investigation Department.
Several other people were charged in separate proceedings last month, including former Allied director Vince Buhagiar and former prime minister Joseph Muscat’s chief of staff Keith Schembri.