The President of Repubblika today filed a sworn application requesting a magisterial inquiry after Times of Malta, Amphora Media, and Malta Today yesterday reported on unexplained payments to former CEO of the Labour Party and various government agencies James Piscopo.
In 2020, Times of Malta cited different sources who said that then Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s Chief of Staff, Keith Schembri, had told Yorgen Fenech that James Piscopo had more than €600,000 hidden in a bank account outside Malta and that these came from bribery or other illegal activity. Sources had said that Schembri had passed a handwritten note to Fenech detailing the movements of funds in the account between 2015 and 2016. This note was presumed to be handwritten by Piscopo and Schembri encouraged Fenech to pass this note on to his media contacts.
Yesterday, Times of Malta, Amphora Media and MaltaToday reported that after the allegations became known in 2020, police investigations found that Piscopo had received so-called suspicious payments in 2015.
These payments deemed suspicious were formally made for consultancy and amounted to €30,000. Piscopo received them when he was heading Transport Malta.
Those payments occurred at the same time that Transport Malta was implementing the Kappara junction project and the time when a new company took over the bus transport service.
Yesterday, Times of Malta reported that it had seen documents showing that the police investigated Piscopo for corruption, tax evasion, and money laundering that he allegedly committed while employed by Transport Malta and later by the Lands Authority.
The reports in the three media outlets say that the Police have been informed for years that Piscopo opened a number of bank accounts in Malta and abroad in his own name and in the name of trusts. It does not appear that a magisterial inquiry was requested at this time.
Vicki Ann Cremona said: “It is the right of citizens to ask institutions to investigate corruption. It is our duty to ensure that journalists’ reporting that exposes them to risk does not continue to gather dust but instead we ensure that the state fulfils its function and ensures that justice is done. That is why these details that have long been known by the police and are now known to everyone, are investigated and if necessary, all action required by law is taken.”
The application for a magisterial inquiry was signed on behalf of Repubblika by Lawyer Jason Azzopardi.