Cocaine sex parties with prostitutes bought officials' silence over 18,000 fraudulently issued ID cards: lawyer

A police inspector was transferred to another department while planning to arraign top political officials on charges of masterminding a racket at Identità, lawyer Jason Azzopardi has claimed in a sworn application on Friday.  

The racket allegedly saw the issuing of an estimated 18,000 Maltese ID cards to third country nationals on the basis of fake documentation and false declarations.

It is just one of several explosive claims laid out in the urgent 59-page sworn application requesting a magisterial inquiry, that was filed earlier this week by lawyer Jason Azzopardi in his personal capacity.

Former Identità official Maria Spiteri and her boyfriend, car dealer and alleged fraudster, Bernard Attard, were named and identified to the police by several Egyptian men who were arrested and questioned by the police after they were caught using the IDs to apply for residence permits.

In a July sitting in the case against Moustafa Ata Moussa Darwish, one of the Egyptian men accused of falsely claiming to be married to a British woman so as to obtain a residency permit in Malta, two Identità officials had given conflicting testimony when asked about whether the man’s file was available, leading Magistrate Kevan Azzopardi to order a police investigation.

An English woman who was supposedly married to the accused had also testified in those proceedings. She described how an official from Identity Malta, as the agency was known then, had called her in 2022 to inquire whether she had sponsored a family member to obtain a residence permit. The woman told the court that she had nothing to do with any Egyptian men and denied ever being married to the accused.

The application states that Spiteri had conspired with Attard to let the third country nationals in to Identity Malta office through a side door after closing time, in order to photograph them for their new ID cards, which were issued in under 30 days - a far cry from the standard three to four month wait.

The couple are already the subjects of ongoing criminal proceedings for fraud, in which they are accused of tricking a Latvian man into paying Attard to purchase a property, with Spiteri impersonating a Lands Department official. A civil court had condemned Attard to pay €696,210 to the victim in that case in 2020.

Last March Attard was also charged with using a metal bar to beat up a man who had gone to Attard’s residence, allegedly carrying pepper spray, to confront Attard for deceiving him in an agreement to buy a car.

The application states that thousands of fake certificates, mostly marriage certificates documenting fictitious marriages abroad between third-country nationals, the majority of them hailing from Egypt or Libya, and UK nationals at a time when the UK was still an EU member state, were used to apply for ID cards.

Azzopardi goes on to allege that these documents, which had been falsified for the purpose of applying for Maltese ID “appear to have already been destroyed by the Identity Malta employees involved in this racket.”

It was for this reason that the Immigration Section of the Malta Police Force had to request confirmation of the purported marriages, Azzopardi said, adding that as far as he was aware, the requested information had not been received to date.

Bernard Attard “mentioned by Colombian organiser of cocaine and prostitute parties”

Azzopardi goes on to declare under oath that he had been entrusted with information by an individual, on condition of anonymity, describing several debauched parties allegedly “organised by a Colombian woman named Rosario” at a villa in Wardija, an apartment in Mellieha and another apartment in St. Julians.

“Members of Parliament from both sides of the House, Government Ministers, doctors, lawyers, employees and Government officials would attend these parties,” declared the lawyer, adding that ‘Rosario’ would boast of the ease with which she would obtain work permits for the prostitutes she employed “thanks to her corrupt contacts at Identity Malta together with officials from the Government of Malta who would be paid large sums of money to help her in return for being allowed to attend these parties for free.”

“Bernard Attard’s is one of the names that Rosario had mentioned to him several times,” alleged the lawyer, requesting an urgent magisterial inquiry aimed at preserving the relevant evidence.

Identità responds to allegations

In response to the allegations, Identità stated that it takes all allegations and reports seriously, noting that it had strengthened its internal compliance structures and is fully cooperating with the police.

The agency stressed its committment to launch the necessary internal investigations. Identità reminded that it had previously launched an internal investigation which has since been passed onto the police.

Identità stated that it does not tolerate any form of abuse, and that it will continue to cooperate with the police.