Theuma pardon includes 2010 HSBC heist

The middleman in the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia was granted a pardon for what could have been an indirect role in the heist of the HSBC bank in 2010. 

Melvin Theuma is believed to have put up one of his properties as a safehouse for the men involved in the shoot-out with police, in what was a daring heist on the HSBC security vault in Qormi. 

Theuma’s role in the heist is included as one of several major crimes for which he was pardoned, MaltaToday has learnt, in return for any information he had on the heist. 

The pardon for Theuma was sealed during the political crisis of December 2019, when the Muscat Cabinet was read out details of the crimes Theuma was requesting a pardon on. 

The role of Theuma, who turned State’s evidence and accused Tumas magnate Yorgen Fenech of masterminding the Caruana Galizia assassination, once again emerges as pivotal in a world of crime in which the protagonists have been the same; amongst whom, the Degiorgio brothers Alfred and George, who stand accused of the Caruana Galizia murder. The brothers are now mounting a constitutional case to clinch a presidential pardon, accusing the Cabinet that refused it of discriminating against them. 

The third accused, Vincent Muscat ‘il-Koħħu’, has already pleaded guilty to the Caruana Galizia assassination, in return for a pardon on the Carmel Chircop murder. That pardon led to the arrest of the ‘Maksar’ gang, namely brothers Adrian and Robert Agius, and Jamie Vella, accused of the Chircop murder and of providing the bomb that killed Caruana Galizia. 

However, the three men’s claims of knowing of a former Labour minister, as well as of a sitting Labour minister, and two middlemen, implicated in the Caruana Galizia assassination and other major crimes has flung the door of speculation wide open. 

The police are indeed investigating the claims that Labour minister Carmelo Abela was an accomplice in the failed heist on HSBC Bank’s main office 11 years ago, when he had been a bank employee as a senior insurance and statistics officer within the bank’s Department of Security, Health and Safety. He has denied any involvement and initiated libel proceedings against Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi, who advanced the claims on social media as well. 

In a request for a presidential pardon that was eventually turned down, Alfred Degiorgio claimed that he has “direct” information on “a sitting minister” who was an accomplice in the 2010 failed heist. Muscat also recounted to police what Degiorgio had told him. 

A second request for pardon on the HSBC heist filed by Muscat ‘il-Koħħu’ was turned down by Cabinet. 

They did not name Abela but lawyer Jason Azzopardi claimed in a Facebook post that the allegations concerned the minister and that he had been promised €300,000 for providing inside information. 

Now Vincent Muscat and Daren Debono ‘it-Topo’ (not the former footballer) are awaiting trial for their involvement in the daring heist. A third person, Fabio Psaila, is also awaiting trial. 

Carmelo Abela was asked to testify in court for the HSBC heist magisterial inquiry as a bank representative in February 2011 behind closed doors. The deposition seen by this newspaper shows that Abela had confirmed under oath that he sometimes used the security equipment that produced the electronic access cards, known as Cotag cards, used by bank employees. 

However, when confronted by the media with his own testimony in the previous weeks, Abela insisted he could not recall testifying in the compilation of evidence. The police had later charged a former police inspector turned lawyer, David Gatt – then a partner in former Labour minister’s Chris Cardona’s legal office – with masterminding the heist. Gatt was acquitted. 

Abela has refused to resign his ministerial post pending the police investigation. 

Police investigating the heist were always convinced that the thieves had someone on the inside of the bank, who provided them with access cards and video footage of the route they had to take to reach the cash centre.