Identitàgate: Stolen identities, bribery and debauchery

A magistrate will on Tuesday be drawn by lot to conduct an inquiry into claims that Identità provided thousands of fraudulent ID cards to foreign nationals. 

It was former MP Jason Azzopardi who filed a 59-page sworn statement requesting the inquiry, which was accorded by the duty magistrate. After the period to appeal the request lapsed on Friday, MaltaToday is informed that the Chief Justice has instructed the court administration to draw the inquiring magistrate’s name by lot on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, MaltaToday takes a look at what we know so far about this brewing scandal.

A letter with a strange name

A letter from a mobile phone company requesting payment for outstanding bills has your home address on it but is addressed to someone you never heard of. 

Presumably, the person with an Indian-sounding name, lived in your home but nobody else but you and your immediate family have ever lived there. And the property was never rented out. 

The individual to whom the letter is addressed must have supplied wrong information to the mobile phone company, using a forged identity card that had your address on it. Or worse, the person may have a perfectly legitimate identity card issued on the basis of fraudulent information, which included ‘your’ address as his home. 

Stolen identity: Letters received at home but addressed to people who never lived there

This case is not a hypothetical one. Indeed, it was Nationalist MP Albert Buttigieg, who on Facebook published several similar letters he had received at home. And he is not the only one. 

However, while those who received similar letters over the past years would have simply brushed the incident off as some form of genuine mistake, not the same can be said today. 

Alarm bells started being raised after former MP Jason Azzopardi started posting on social media about a “massive scandal” at Identità, a government agency, involving what he claims are “18,000 false ID cards” issued to non-EU nationals.

Bribery and false documents 

Azzopardi has claimed in a court filing requesting a magisterial inquiry that car dealer Bernard Attard, currently undergoing several criminal proceedings for fraud and money laundering unrelated to this scandal, had requested bribes running into thousands of euros from non-EU nationals to supply them with valid identity cards. 

Azzopardi alleged that the man used the services of a woman, who worked at the Brexit desk at Identità, named in the sworn application as Marija Spiteri. The woman allegedly used to input the details of the foreign nationals into the Identità system and allow them into the office from a side door after hours to have their photo taken. 

An Identita official used to input details of foreigners who would have paid thousands of euros to fraudulently obtain residency permits

False documents were used to substantiate the residency applications, which resulted in the issuance of valid ID cards to these foreign nationals. The ID cards were issued expeditiously. 

Attard and Spiteri are subject to freezing orders imposed by the courts in December 2021 and September 2022 respectively. The criminal cases against the pair that led to the issuance of the freezing orders are unrelated to the ID card scandal. Spiteri was listed as ‘unemployed’ by that time. 

The freezing order for Attard, aged 32 from Żebbuġ, pertains to a case instituted by the police against him December 2021. Attard was charged with misappropriating €1.6 million, fraud and money laundering. He pleaded not guilty to the charges and the case against him is ongoing.

Inspector Anthony Scerri had testified that the police had received two criminal complaints and a report from a notary, who reported that his stamp and signature were used on documents without his knowledge or consent. The latter case had originally been flagged by the Notarial Council in 2020 after it warned notaries to beware of false documents linked to the sale of apartments in St Julian’s. 

The other two victims reported losing €600,000 and €8,000 respectively at the hands of the accused.

An Egyptian man and his fake marriage 

Azzopardi’s claims were initially side-lined but they gained credibility when an Egyptian national, who was charged by immigration police with fraudulently obtaining a residency permit, decided not to plead guilty, forcing the prosecution to produce witnesses. 

In a court sitting last month, it transpired that the Egyptian man, Moustafa Ata Moussa Darwish, had produced a fake marriage certificate that supposedly showed him to be married to a British woman. This certificate would give Darwish a residency permit for 10 years, given the British connection. After Brexit, Malta opted for longer 10-year residency periods for British nationals. 

Police charged three Egyptian nationals with fraudulently obtaining ID cards (File photo)

Darwish’s residency permit was issued in March 2023 but revoked on police orders in June 2024. The woman to whom Darwish was supposed to be married denied in court she was ever married to the accused. She did not even know who he was. 

But the case got more complicated when the magistrate presiding over proceedings, Kevan Azzopardi, ordered the police to investigate two Identità officials over possible perjury after they gave contradicting testimony. 

Chief information officer Stefano Rodoligo had testified that he had asked an official from the Expats section at Identità to search for Darwish’s file in the agency’s archives. 

Rodoligo told the court that Isaac Micallef, from the Expats section, had personally taken the requested file to his office. The file contained documentation related to the accused’s application for a permit as a non-EU family member. 

However, Micallef had earlier told the court that he found no trace of the file on the agency system or in the archives. 

The case against Darwish is ongoing. 

Two other Egyptian nationals who were charged separately on similar crimes had pleaded guilty and were jailed six months each. 

The timing of the Egyptian’s residency permit (March 2023) indicates that the scam at Identità continued even after Marija Spiteri no longer worked there, suggesting that more people from within the agency were involved.

Identità coy on wrongdoing by officials 

Meanwhile, Identità had said the case against “some individuals” had been flagged by them following internal checks and passed on to the police. 

However, the agency has remained coy about the much bigger implication that ID cards were being issued fraudulently to foreign nationals as part of a corruption ring involving officials on the inside. 

When asked by MaltaToday whether its internal reviews had flagged wrongdoing by Identità officials, the agency only said that it is cooperating with the police without confirming or denying the claim.

READ ALSO: Identità mum as to whether internal probe flagged wrongdoing by employees

It remains unclear whether the police are investigating any former or current Identità employees and officials. 

Sources privy to the workings of Identità have told MaltaToday that the agency has long been aware of the ‘fake identity cards’ but dispute the number is as high as is being claimed. 

The sources said the female official who no longer works at the agency had the blessing of a high official at Identity Malta, as it was known then before rebranding. The high official no longer works there. 

In his sworn application, Azzopardi went as far as claiming that an unnamed source informed him of debauched parties allegedly “organised by a Colombian woman named Rosario” at a villa in Wardija, and apartments in Mellieħa and St Julian’s. Cocaine and prostitutes would be available at these parties and the organiser would boast of the ease with which she would obtain work permits for the prostitutes she employed. 

Azzopardi alleged that MPs from both sides of the House, ministers, doctors, lawyers and government officials would attend these parties.  

Cocaine is allegedly distributed in parties organised by a Colombian woman (File photo)

The former MP claimed that Bernard Attard is one of the names that ‘Rosario’ allegedly mentioned to Azzopardi’s source as a link for obtaining residency permits for the prostitutes she employed. 

Meanwhile, Azzopardi’s request for a magisterial inquiry has been upheld and on Tuesday a magistrate will be drawn by lot and assigned to the inquiry. 

But in the latest twist to the ongoing saga, Azzopardi said he has been approached by several people who allege that their identities have been stolen outright and used to obtain hospital treatment. 

These people have received appointments from Mater Dei Hospital for treatments and surgery they do not need and have never sought medical assistance for. The implication is that someone must have used their identity to access the public healthcare system. 

It remains unclear how many of these ‘wrong’ appointments have been issued to unsuspecting individuals but the development provides a new, worrying angle to the Identità conundrum.