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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 9 OCTOBER 2016 13 News The prime suspect for the Dutch police however, was an- other individual, a high-roller poker player called Robert Soogea, 48. In the search of this first residence, police found a hidden space behind a plinth next to the ceiling in the bed- room. In a hidden drawer, police found correspondence and consignment notes related to goods that had been shipped from Brazil to Rotterdam. This is what police were after. When he learned of Cumberbatch's arrest, Soogea – who had not yet been arrested – was taped in a phone conversa- tion calling a woman who was staying at the residence at the time of the search. From the tapped conversation, Soogea was heard giving the woman instructions to remove the pa- pers from the drawer next to the ceiling. But the woman said the papers had been removed. Clearly Soogea was well aware of the importance of these consignment notes and papers: among them was a Bank of Valletta Visa gold card issued in the name of 'CapitalOne Inv.Group / Robert Guillaume SOOGEA'. Soogea was arrested a few hours later. In a raid on a second property, some 1,000g of soft drugs and 80g of hard drugs were found, together with the sum of €62,500. Another €35,000 was found in a third residence that police raided, where Soogea had been residing. A fourth residence was raided where more papers were found behind a drawer un- der the waterbed in the bedroom. The sum total of these papers was important for police. Apart from the shipping consignment notes and the bank card, Soogea was the ultimate beneficiary owner of several Cypriot businesses. One of them was Senoblema Trading, which had acquired a total of 250,000 shares in the Malta company CapitalOne Investment Group. Senoblema had loaned another Cypriot company, Gillesa Trading, €3.8 mil- lion to be repaid between 2012 and 2015. Soogea was also the beneficial owner of Gillesa Shipping, a company which deposited large amounts of cash into CapitalOne's BOV ac- count. During his interview with police, Soogea stated that he had no possessions or income, and that he had no interests in companies or businesses. But this was a lie, as Maltese police would later find from evidence gathered from inside Bank of Valletta. The Dutch police requested a freezing order of Soogea's assets in Malta in November 2012: "He is involved with resi- dences where drugs were found and is aware of consignment notes kept in a hidden space [related] to containers with goods shipped from Brazil to Rotterdam… There are serious suspicions that suspect Soogea tried to his criminal assets by means of various companies and is possibly involved in international drugs transportations." Police investigation A ssistant Commissioner Michael Cassar was informed of the Dutch request for a freezing order on 22 November, and was told that Soogea would soon be able to communicate with people outside the penitentiary where he was being held. "From that moment, there is a risk of dissipation of the assets," the Dutch warned. On 18 December, inspector Mario Cuschieri communi- cated the request to deputy Attorney General – today mag- istrate – Donatella Frendo Dimech, and the order was duly signed by Attorney General Peter Grech. In their request to BOV, the police demanded all informa- tion related to Soogea, warning that the man was suspected of trafficking in narcotics. Before the year was out, BOV informed the police that three credit cards had been issued in the names of suspects Soogea and Cumberbatch, and a Greek associate, Ioannis Moustos. Within less than eight months of its founding, CapitalOne Investment had also filed notice with the MFSA in Febru- ary 2009 that it was raising its authorised share capital from €50,000 to €200 million – a sign of larger investments com- ing its way. Bank transactions showed regu- lar deposits into a euro savings accounts that went as high as €1 million, before being transferred into a Valletta Fund Management account. For example, almost €1 million was deposited over three weeks from a Greek firm called Logistics SA. Then money from the bank ac- count would be used to acquire the shareholding of Greek tour- ism company GATS, and thereaf- ter more lump sums of €250,000 were regularly paid out to increase the share capital of this and re- lated companies. All these bank movements predated the absorp- tion of all these companies into a loss-making Cypriot firm Ava- com, which acquired the shares of the companies owned by Soogea and Cumberbatch. At one point, a €1 million payment was effected by a fur coats merchant in Siena, Italy, called Agar Srl. The next day €1.2 million was deposited inside a Valletta Fund Manage- ment account. Even more cash was paid to CapitalOne Investment from companies like Gillesa Shipping, which the Dutch say was Soogea's own company. The money held in Malta, managed by Baltimore Fiduci- ary, was mainly used to acquire and accumulate shares in all these companies and properties in other countries. Regular payments were made to settle Visa gold fees that Soogea accumulated in the places he visited: Sao Paolo, Las Vegas, Nicosia, the Isle of Man, Rotterdam. To Maltese police poring over the transactions, this was at the very least a suspicious trail of money movement – at best, classic money laundering. Although listed as a director of Baltimore, there appears no smoking gun of irregularity for Beppe Fenech Adami: all these trading instruments were signed by Richard Abdilla Castillo and company secretary Joe Zammit Pavia. But for the Maltese investigators who collated the banking transactions, this was evidence that had to be transmitted to Europol at The Hague. 'Bring up in three months' I n a 3 January email to Dutch prosecutors, deputy attorney general Donatella Frendo Dimech communicated details of the BOV credit cards and the existence of the bank account. Police investigators at this point had already collected the evidence together of the bank transactions for CapitalOne. But sources privy to the Dutch investigation insist they did not see the full body of evidence. "Although the Maltese as- sisted us with the asset freeze, as they were obliged to do under EU law, they did not do so over the results of their investigation into CapitalOne, Baltimore Fiduciary, Fenech Adami, bank transfers… "This was one of our specific requests to the Maltese in its initial request." On 23 January, the Dutch prosecutor asked Frendo Di- mech whether it "would be possible to provide information concerning the question whether it is worth the effort to send you an EU freezing order with regard to the other ac- counts?" MaltaToday is unable to establish whether this request was given a reply. At this time, it appears the police were already aware that Beppe Fenech Adami had been identified as a di- rector of Baltimore Fiduciary. "This was one of our specific requests to the Maltese," the Dutch source insists. "This lack of cooperation is what we believe killed our investigation. If they had passed us this information, we would have in all likelihood devoted more resources to it and bumped it up in importance. At the time we had been unaware that the Maltese had found anything and so did not pursue." On 16 April, the Maltese were told that the Dutch pros- ecutor had dropped its charges against Soogea and Cum- berbatch due to lack of evidence. "There is a small chance that an investigation will be started by the national public prosecutor at a later moment," they mused. Two days later the freezing order was revoked. But this freezing order does not appear anywhere in the public reg- ister uploaded on the website of the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit, which displays all freezing orders sworn be- fore the Maltese courts. This, a top legal source assured MaltaToday, was manda- tory according to law: the asset freeze had to be sworn before a judge as laid down in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The police file into CapitalOne Investment Group was once again referred to the special branch, for transmission to Europol. By 27 December 2013, the suspended investigation was destined to be totally forgotten when the file was marked "PU" – put away. At this stage, Michael Cassar was no longer part of the police force but heading the Malta Security Ser- vice, appointed there since April. Today Cassar is a consult- ant to the MSS. Beppe Fenech Adami, who a year earlier had declared his directorship in Baltimore Fiduciary in his parliamentary declaration of assets, filed a notice of his resignation in Janu- ary 2014. Even Richard Abdilla Castillo ensured that Baltimore Fi- duciary no longer managed as nominee owner, CapitalOne, in 2016 selling all its 5,000 shares to Ioannis Moustos – the Greek associate in whose name BOV had also issued a credit card. The Greek companies that the Dutch said Robert Soogea was an owner of – Gillesa Shipping and Senoblema Trad- ing – are all dissolved today and no longer trading. Together with Cumberbatch's company Chriphera Enterprises, Seno- blema's shares were acquired by Avacom. And Robert Soogea can be seen smiling: earlier this year he took the top €150,000 prize at the 2016 World Poker Tour in Amsterdam. In comments to MaltaToday, MP Beppe Fenech Adami said he remembers nothing of a police investigation dealing with either Baltimore Fiduciary or CapitalOne Investment Group. "I have no idea what you're talking about. Nobody spoke to me about it." He said he was "not aware about CapitalOne and any investigation" when asked about the asset freeze on the company's bank accounts, and that nobody had spoken to him about the investigation. He also said Richard Abdilla Castillo, the owner of Baltimore and co-director, had not spoken to him about any asset freeze. "This is totally news to me." He also denied having been spoken to by police about the investigation when he was parliamentary assistant for home affairs. "No, no, absolutely not. This is the first time I am hearing about it. I resigned in January 2014 because there was no reason to remain on. I'm not the person who used to take care of the daily running of the company." Beppe Fenech Adami Michael Cassar Former Assistant Commissioner (later Police Commissioner) Michael Cassar ssaid he could not answer for any investigation, and said that he could not remember details of any investigation. "I was going from one investigation to the other. I would see hundreds of files in 2013." When told that he was informed of the existence of a PEP in Baltimore Fiduciary and that this was Beppe Fenech Adami, Cassar said he could not remember. "I can only refer you to the file in question, it's only the right solution, because I cannot speak from memory. "I will not tell you whether I remember Fenech Adami's name or not. Ask the Commissioner and he will answer you on the facts." 'BRING UP in three months' Cassar insisted that 'bring up' does not mean the investigation was postponed. "It means someone is still waiting for something, maybe a reply from the AG, or because something is missing from the investigation." Cassar could not say why he felt the investigation should be 'brought up in three months' and refuted suggestions it was because of the elections. "I have told you everything I know. Ask the Commissioner." At one point, a €1 million payment was effected by a fur This, a top legal source assured MaltaToday, was manda- The Dutch prosecutors seeking the asset freeze were in communication with both former deputy Attorney General Donatella Frendo Dimech, and former Assistant Commissioner Michael Cassar during January-April 2013 Mark Hollingsworth is a London-based, freelance jour- nalist who has written for The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Observer, The Financial Times, The Independent, The Evening Standard and The Telegraph. He is the author of eight books, including Londongrad: From Russis with Cash, Saudi Babylon: Torture, Corrup- tion and Cover-Up Inside the House of Saud, Thatcher's Fortunes: The Life and Times of Mark Thatcher, and MPs For Hire: The Secret World of Political Lobbying