Alleged fuel smuggler paid auditor’s hefty FIAU fine, court told
An alleged fuel smuggler paid a hefty FIAU fine issued to his accountant who stands charged with money laundering, a court heard on Monday.
Auditor Chris Baldacchino stands accused of having been the brains behind the laundering of illicit funds for an organised crime group allegedly involved in a €30million fuel smuggling racket.
Baldacchino, who remains in preventative custody, was slapped with a fine of some €58,000 for lax anti-money laundering controls last year.
Testifying in the compilation of evidence against Baldacchino before Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras, police inspector Omar Caruana told the court how Baldacchino had been reimbursed for the amount he was fined by a company owned by one of two men charged with running an illicit fuel smuggling ring.
Two former footballers, Darren Debono and Jeffrey Chetcuti have been under preventive custody since their arrest in a police anti-smuggling operation last November.
During his testimony, Caruana detailed how Baldacchino was allegedly involved in the process of financial layering for the former footballers.
Layering is a practice of obscuring the provenance of illicit funds through a series of convoluted...