Adrian Delia has denied opening Jersey bank account

Police investigators are examining the trail of a £10,000 cheque issued from a bank account in Jersey, signed by Adrian Delia, and then deposited in a Maltese bank account for a company in which he is a signatory.

But the Opposition leader has denied with police that he had ever opened a bank account in Jersey.

The cheque is part of the preliminary findings made by the Financial Investigation Analysis Unit, sparked by revelations of Delia’s former services to offshore companies that held London properties being used in a prostitution racket.

Delia has attempted to deflect the heat from the FIAU investigation, now in the hands of the police, by claiming that his signatures have been falsified in company resolutions that connect him to the Bajada family.

The FIAU’s findings confirmed press reports in 2017 on Delia’s services to Eucharist Bajada, reportedly the ultimate beneficial owner of offshore companies which owned London properties in Soho that were linked to a prostitution racket, and the collection of monthly rent payments on behalf of the company.

Delia has also met up with investigators, now led by Magistrate Aaron Bugeja, where he is said to have denied ever visiting the island of Jersey to open a bank account there sometime in February 2001, before closing it in October 2004.

Investigators are said to have been sceptical about the importance of Delia’s statement, considering his physical presence was not required at the time to open a Jersey account.

Delia also told police he believed that there could be more falsified signatures, after having filed a criminal complaint a fortnight ago after holding a press conference on the eve of a Times report on the FIAU’s findings.

Based on that report, the police have since searched the residences of Eucharist Bajada, his son ‘Kris’ Eucharist jnr., and his former wife Diana Busuttil. With Kris Bajada still undergoing medical treatment at Mater Dei’s intensive therapy unit, Magistrate Bugeja has ordered a police sentry outside Kris Bajada’s residence to thwart any attempt to enter the residence.

The alleged falsified signatures upon which Delia demanded a police investigation last week so far have included a memorandum of association for the company Frankef Ltd.

Frankef Ltd was owned by Kris Bajada, while Delia held just 10 out of 24,000 shares.

The variations of Delia’s signatures have long been present on public documents connected to Frankef and the Soho properties’ holding companies, either in the companies’ registry or in documents published in the press. For example, the signatures on the Frankef MOA and a Frankef altered MOA alike, but they are then unequivocally different to a signature on a 1999 letter from Delia, in which he presents himself as the director of Healey Properties, one of the companies which owned the London properties implicated in a prostitution investigation; as well as another signature on a 2003 resolution for his resignation from Healey Properties.

The Sunday Times of Malta has reported that the FIAU conducted an in-depth analysis of Delia’s Jersey account, into which roughly £346,000 in cheques and cash were deposited from various bank branches around London.

The FIAU tracked the funds from the Jersey account to two Swiss accounts as well as the company Healey Properties Limited, which is registered in the Bahamas.

Healey Properties owned the London properties that were used as brothels. Eucharist Bajada, Healey’s alleged owner, would collect the rent from the properties from his brother Emanuel Bajada and his wife Eve.

Some £218,000 were transferred to two accounts in Switzerland but it was unclear where the money moved to next. £91,568 went to Healey Properties Ltd and £40,000 to E&M Bajada Ltd, in Malta.

Healey Properties owned 52, Greek Street in London – a property that was raided by London police during Operation Pabail, an investigation into a prostitution racket. According to a letter addressed to Delia from the lawyers acting on behalf of Emanuel aka ‘Lolly’ Bajada, Healey and AAS Freight were the beneficiaries of the London rents.

In December 2003, the lawyers for Healey and AAS insisted that Emanuel and Eve Bajada had not paid the rents accumulated from 1999 to the companies, some £20,000 every month, through Adrian Delia’s Barclays International account in Jersey.