Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1411841
2 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 19 SEPTEMBER 2021 NEWS Thank you... for having bought this newspaper mt The good news is that we're not raising the price of our newspaper We know times are still hard, but we have pledged to keep giving our readers quality news they deserve, without making you pay more for it. So thank you, for making it your MaltaToday Support your favourite newspaper with a special offer on online PDF subscriptions. Visit bit.ly/2X9csmr or scan the QR code Subscriptions can be done online on agendabookshop.com Same-day delivery at €1 for orders up to 5 newspapers per address. Subscribe from €1.15 a week Same-day print delivery from Miller Distributors Jobsplus Permit Number 357/2021 Jobsplus Permit Number 363/2021 Visit www.landsauthority.org.mt/mt/about-us/careers/ for the relevant job description. Apply: hr.la@landsauthority.org.mt Closing Date: 4 th October 2021 WE ARE RECRUITING! SENIOR PROFESSIONAL OFFICER (LEGAL) PROFESSIONAL OFFICER DRAUGHTSPERSON CONTINUED PAGE 1 The police also deduced that Theuma had effected transactions of some €2.23 million through Maltese banks, with accounts hav- ing held €1.26 million at Bank of Valletta, €795,000 at HSBC, and €170,000 at BNF. Police had also seized over €550,000 from Theuma's apart- ment in Żurrieq, apart from for- eign currency. Another €40,000 in cash was found in an apartment he owned in Ħal-Qormi. A total of €448,000 was eventually confiscat- ed in favour of the Maltese State as a precondition for Theuma's presidential pardon to turn State's evidence against Tumas magnate Yorgen Fenech, who is accused of having masterminded the assassi- nation of Caruana Galizia. The police investigation had spread its net wider, seizing some €132,000 in the possession of Carmen Catania, the mother of Melvin Theuma's partner. Police sources told MaltaToday the cash was eventually returned after it was not deemed to have been of criminal provenance. But police are still investigating the relatives of Theuma, namely his partner Charmaine Zammit, 42 of Zurrieq, her daughter Shi- anne Zammit, 26, and her partner Ryan Farrugia, 26, of Qormi, who have been referred for charges on money laundering Apart from running a lucrative taxi stand at the Portomaso com- plex, Theuma acted as the person- al go-for to alleged mastermind Yorgen Fenech. Theuma also ran Malta's "parallel lotto" – complete with tickets, in which pundits stood a chance of winning ma- jor cash – which is pegged to the national one, with players placing bets on a string of numbers and waiting for the national lotto win- ning numbers to be announced at the end of every week. Theuma himself was also grant- ed a pardon for what could have been his indirect role in the heist of the HSBC bank in 2010, be- lieved to have put up one of his properties as a safehouse for the men involved in the shoot-out with police. Theuma was granted a presi- dential pardon by the Muscat ad- ministration in December 2019, after he had been arrested in a money-laundering raid that was months in the making. Theuma had been aware of his pending ar- rest, claiming in conversations he recorded on his phone that it was part of a ruse to assuage Europol investigators after his name was mentioned to police by one of the triggermen, Vincent Muscat 'il- Koħħu'. Muscat had already identified Theuma early on in April 2018 in conversations with police in a bid to obtain a pardon for his role in the assassination. Theuma is believed to have known of the raid on his proper- ty, because of information passed on to his longtime associate Edgar Brincat 'il-Ġojja' by Commission- er of Police Lawrence Cutajar. Theuma surmised that the arrest would never lead to a prosecution, and that investigations would fiz- zle out. mvella@mediatoday.com.mt Police found over €2.2 million in banking transactions