Money-laundering facts + documents: Keith Schembri and Adrian Hillman

Adrian Hillman – Keith Schembri’s friend, unofficial business associate and, at the time, managing director of Allied Newspapers Ltd (Times of Malta, The Sunday Times) – laundered more than €600,000 after the Labour Party was elected to government in March 2013, according to his own accounts which were prepared by corrupt accountants Karl Cini and Brian Tonna of Nexia BT.

The money was laundered through Hillman’s company in the British Virgin Islands, Lester Holding Corp, which was not declared to the Maltese authorities or to his employers at Allied Newspapers Ltd.

Lester Holding Corp was set up in 2011, but restructured for greater secrecy, using layers of nominees to hide his ownership, by Mossack Fonseca, Brian Tonna and Karl Cini shortly after the Labour Party came to power in 2013.

At the same time Lester Holding Corp was set up for Adrian Hillman in 2011, another two companies were set up in the same jurisdiction for Keith Schembri and his business partner Malcolm Scerri, both of the Kasco Group, the leading supplier to Allied Newspapers and Progress Press, the companies controlled by Hillman.

These British Virgin Islands companies, Colson Service Corp (Schembri) and Selson Holding Corp (Scerri) were also restructured for greater secrecy after March 2013.

The documents shown here are from the Panama Papers.

Adrian Hillman, Keith Schembri and Malcolm Scerri are all the subjects of a report prepared by the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit because of these and other money-laundering transactions.