Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/739617
19 News maltatoday, TUESDAY, 18 OCTOBER 2016 Baltimore Fiduciary owner Abdilla Castillo resigns ahead of Premier bond issue Richard Abdilla Castillo, who ran company suspected by police in money laundering investigation, resigns Premier Capital and Hili Group directorships MATTHEW VELLA THE director and owner of Bal- timore Fiduciary, auditor Richard Abdilla Castillo, has resigned his post as a director of Premier Cap- ital and the Hili Group, ahead of a €20 million bond issue by Pre- mier Capital. Baltimore Fiduciary was iden- tified in a police investigation as the nominee shareholder and name-lender for CapitalOne Investment Group, a company whose owners were suspected of drug trafficking in the Nether- lands. Premier Capital is the licensee of McDonald's in Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania and Malta, and employs over 2,800 people. The company offered to the public €20 million bonds due 2017-2020 at the rate of 6.8%. Premier said Abdilla Castillo had resigned his directorship pending a government inquiry into the reasons a police investi- gation into CapitalOne was not actively pursued in January 2013. In a drug bust led by Dutch police in Amsterdam in Novem- ber 2012, business papers were seized connecting poker player and suspect Robert Soogea, to CapitalOne. Subsequently, Mal- tese police requested banking in- formation on CapitalOne which suggested that large amounts of cash were being transferred from Greek companies into Capital- One and then deposited into a Valletta Fund Management ac- count, before being transferred back to other Greek companies. MaltaToday, which broke the story, reported that the police investigation was not pursued when investigators highlighted the presence of Nationalist MP Beppe Fenech Adami – then the parliamentary assistant for home affairs – as a director of Balti- more Fiduciary. While Fenech Adami resigned his post in Baltimore in January 2014, Abdilla Castillo in August 2016 sold off CapitalOne to Greek national Ioannis Moustos, who was involved in the company at the time of the police investiga- tion. The police investigation in January 2013 raised the spec- tre of money laundering but was never pursued by the Maltese police, ostensibly when the name of Nationalist MP Beppe Fenech Adami cropped up as one of the directors of a fiduciary services company that handled the affairs of CapitalOne Investment Group. Acting on a Dutch request for assistance, Maltese police were looking into the banking transac- tions of CapitalOne, a company connected to Robert Soogea, a Dutchman whose property was raided by police in a drug bust. Sources priv y to the Dutch in- vestigation expressed frustration that not all evidence connected to banking transactions by Capi- talone were passed on to them by the Maltese police. Both Beppe Fenech Adami and Robert Abdilla Castillo – direc- tors of Baltimore Fiduciary, which acted as the nominee company that 'owned' CapitalOne's shares – have denied knowing anything of this investigation, even though an asset freeze was ordered on re- quest of the Dutch police. Maltese police found that Bank of Valletta had issued Visa gold credit cards in the name of sus- pect Robert Soogea and his as- sociates like Ioannis Moustos, and that CapitalOne was used to receieve millions in cash, some of which was deposited in a Val- letta Fund Management account, and then dispensed to pay off Soogea's expenses and to acquire share capital in various Greek companies – almost all of these companies are dissolved today. When investigators pieced to- gether a report for police top brass on 13 January, the Capitalone file was marked 'BU – 3 months' – bring up in three months – on 31 January. By April 2013, the Dutch had dropped their charges due to lack of evidence, and in Decem- ber 2013, the Capitalone file was marked 'PU' – 'put away'. Zammit Lewis calls on opposition to take action against Fenech and Fenech Adami YANNICK PACE TOURISM minister Edward Zam- mit Lewis yesterday accused Si- mon Busuttil of double standards in his handling of cases of alleged impropriety by MPs and urged him to take action against PN heav y- weights Beppe Fenech Adami and Tonio Fenech. Zammit Lewis said that the La- bour Party was concerned by the damage being done to Malta's reputation by the current investi- gations involving the two PN MPs. "We are not interested in going into the merits of the case however on a political level we are very con- cerned about the effect this is hav- ing on Malta's reputation," he said. Zammit Lewis added that is was worrying that authorities in two foreign countries were investigat- ing these two companies. Fenech Adami was one of two co- directors when Baltimore's client, CapitalOne Investment Group, was suspected of money laundering in connection with a drug raid in the Netherlands in January 2013. Former finance minister Tonio Fenech is facing a criminal inves- tigation in Sweden after the coun- try's pensions authority reported to the Swedish police a Malta-based fund he is a director of – allegedly for its inability to pay back Swedish savers their monies. Also addressing the press confer- ence at Labour's HQ, government backbencher Luciano Busuttil said that the Labour Party did not wish to comment on the investigations. Referring to a story published on Sunday by MaltaToday he said that it was worrying that people had invested money in a fund which is now under investigation and which also has ties to Malta's former fi- nance minister Tonio Fenech. Luciano Busuttil said that the opposition leader was being in- consistent in defending both MPs given that he is always quick to de- mand action from both the govern- ment and the Labour Party. Zammit Lewis added that the two cases involved serious issues, namely the defrauding of pension- ers, some of the most vulnerable people in society, and drug traf- ficking, a menace to society that has ruined many lives. Zammit Lewis also question a statement issued on Sunday by the PN. He said he could not un- derstand why the PN was defend- ing a private company rather than allowing due process to take place arguing that the statement is ir- relevant on a political level and should never have been issues by the PN The tourism minister said that Simon Busuttil was showing him- self to be incapable of taking ac- tion. "Simon Busuttil has shown him- self to be the paladin of double standards," he said. He added that on a political level, the Labour Party could not allow these things to happen and de- manded that the opposition take action on these serious allegations. Asked about why the Labour Party had not taken action when it came to Konrad Mizzi's involve- ment in the Panama Papers, the minister said that Mizzi had re- moved from his ministerial roles and was now a minister within the OPM. He added that a due dili- gence was currently ongoing and the results would be published in due course. Richard Abdilla Castillo and Beppe Fenech Adami were directors of CapitalOne at the time of a 2013 police investigation of their clients into alleged money laundering. Abdilla Castillo is now resigning from a directorship in the Hili Group