Updated | Keith Schembri denies ‘all allegations levelled’ against him

The Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff Keith Schembri has today categorically denied all allegations being levelled against him after it was alleged that he has paying kickbacks to Adrian Hillman, managing director of Allied Newspapers.

Malta Independent columnist Daphe Caruana Galizia alleged that Schembri paid “backhanders and kickbacks to Adrian Hillman for years on purchases made by the Allied Group of Companies from his business Kasco Group.

“With reference to a number of media reports which are reflecting a series of coordinated and unsubstantiated attacks against me originating from a dubious and malicious source, I categorically deny all accusations being levelled against me,” Schembri said in a brief statement on Sunday.

“It is clear that there are people who cannot get at me politically and are trying to do so by hitting, through lies and deceit, my commercial interests.”

“Prior to entering office I relinquished executive posts of all my commercial interests and made it my business to ensure that Malta has a Government that delivers and makes a real difference in people's lives,” Schembri said.

On Saturday, Allied Newspapers, publishers of The Sunday Times, the Times of Malta and timesofmalta.com, announced they had launched an inquiry following “very serious allegations” made by Malta Independent columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

The blogger claimed “graft in high places” at Allied Newspapers at Allied Newspapers, arguing that it “directly impacted on the credibility of those two newspapers in the run-up to the general election of 2013,” and linked this to holdings in the British Virgin Islands allegedly owned by OPM chief staff Keith Schembri and also by managing director Adrian Hillman.

Hillman is taking leave until the conclusions of the inquiry are considered by the board.