Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/825522
TIM DIACONO OPPOSITION leader Simon Busuttil announced yester- day he has received new in- formation and evidence of a "new case of criminality and corruption" implicating Jo- seph Muscat's chief of staff Keith Schembri. Busuttil said he has in his possession an entire cache of documents showing how Schembri paid former Allied Group managing director Adrian Hillman €650,000 in payments between 2011 and 2015 without any form of ex- planation. "The payments came from secret structures that indi- cate a textbook case of brib- ery and money laundering," Busuttil said. Schembri's Kasco Group had won a competitive tender to supply Allied Group's Pro- gress Press with its printing press in 2010. Busuttil said Schembri used Gibraltarian company Mal- mos and various bank ac- counts in Switzerland and Gibraltar, as well as his Pila- tus bank account, to pass on money to Adrian Hillman or Hillman's offshore company in the British Virgin Islands company Lester Holdings. In one payment, Busuttil said that Schembri passed on $169,000 from Schembri's Credit Suisse account, and then invested the money in international bonds through financial intermediaries. In another transfer, Schem- bri used Malmos Limited to passed on €135,000 to a Jyske Bank (Gibraltar) account, which amount was that same day invested in six interna- tional bonds and funds. Through Malmos, on a later occasion Schembri paid Hillman's Lester Hold- ings €125,000, which was then paid into international bonds. Another transfer saw Schembri pass on €100,000 to Lester Holdings and again these were invested in inter- national bonds. Another €154,000 amount was split into some 24 pay- ments, of usually €5,000 each, to pass through various bank accounts, among them Pilatus Bank where Hillman had an account. ELECTION SPECIAL €1.00 Newspaper post THURSDAY • 18 MAY 2017 • ISSUE 529 • WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT PAGE 5 ELECTIONS DAYS TO GO 16 PAGE 2 See full report page 6 Busuttil says he will pass on evidence of €650,000 payment from Schembri to Adrian Hillman to magistrate Schembri and Hillman claim they have paid tax and have invoices and that work is mostly related to work before 2013 PN leader said that there were payments from secret structures that indicate a textbook case of bribery and money laundering, Hillman and Schembri deny this Labour, PN trade barbs on corruption whilst AD calls leaders out Labour, PN trade barbs on corruption whilst AD calls leaders out MIRIAM DALLI A three-hour long event hosted yesterday by the University of Malta, saw the political leaders face off in the first live debate since Prime Minister Joseph Muscat called snap elections. Joseph Muscat (PL), Simon Busuttil (PN), Arnold Cassola (AD), Marlene Farrugia (PD) and Henry Battistino (Movi- ment Patrijotti Maltin) went head-to-head before thousands of University students gathered at different venues on campus to follow the much-anticipated debate. With the exception of Battis- tino – near silence in the hall as he spoke about his party's stance against 'excess liberal- ism' – the leaders were either cheered on or jeered at, de- pending on who the speaker was. PAGE 8