Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/826032
3 maltatoday, FRIDAY, 19 MAY 2017 News PORTOMASOLIVE.COM REGISTER NOW 1 2 3 Register your personal account JOIN DEPOSIT EARN CASHBACK Place your deposit, play & participate in our promotions You're always a winner at Portomaso Live You're always a winner Simon Busuttil takes Schembri- Hillman evidence to Egrant inquiry MATTHEW AGIUS OPPOSITION leader Simon Busuttil yesterday morning filed a court application, mak- ing himself available to tes- tify before Magistrate Aaron Bugeja again over documents showing how the Prime Min- ister's chief of staff, Keith Schembri, paid former Allied Group managing director Adrian Hillman €650,000 in payments between 2011 and 2015 – something Busuttil claims is a "textbook case of money laundering". Busuttil had already taken evidence claiming kickbacks paid to Schembri by audi- tor Brian Tonna on the sale of Maltese citizenship, but Magistrate Bugeja later is- sued a decree so that a new inquiry be launched. Instead of taking the new evidence to Magistrate Nata- sha Galea Sciberras, Busuttil filed his application before Bugeja, arguing that it was up to Bugeja to delegate it to another magistrate if he felt it necessary. "Aaron Bugeja's terms of reference are clear. Did you expect me to go to the Police Commissioner? Of course not. Bugeja was the first mag- istrate I went to. It's up to [the magistrates] to decide who will follow it up," Busut- til said, when asked about the procedural meandering. Busuttil said the informa- tion he was presenting had come into his possession after he had handed the inquiry a previous batch of documents. People were still coming for- ward with information, he said. Busuttil is alleging that Schembri, with the assistance of Brian Tonna, used bank ac- counts in Switzerland and Gi- braltar, together with others at Pilatus Bank in Ta' Xbiex to route funds to Hillman either directly or through a hitherto secret company called Lester Holdings. Within 24 hours of receipt, the funds were then invested in international bonds via financial intermediaries, he said. The PN leader said that he police commissioner had been made aware of the is- sue in late 2016, but had not acted. Busuttil said he would have liked to go through the proper police channels, but in view of the apparent reluc- tance on the part of the po- lice to investigate the previ- ous claims, he could not trust them. "How can the police be helping the inquiring magis- trate investigate Prime Min- ister Joseph Muscat and the magistrate investigating Mr Schembri if they had known about all this and kept it un- der wraps," Busuttil said on Wednesday. Simon Busuttil said people were still coming forward with new evidence