Malta lawyer investigated over bitcoin sent to alleged murderer of Daphne Galizia

A prominent lawyer from Malta is being investigated by the US and Maltese authorities over a bitcoin transaction made to suspected criminal Yorgen Fenech. The funds were allegedly used to purchase a firearm on the dark web.

Fenech is currently being prosecuted in Malta over his alleged murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. She was killed in a car bombing in 2017.

Maltese authorities requested US assistance last year in the investigation over the illegal acquisition of weapons by Fenech with bitcoin. 

A request by the US authorities was made on September 21 to a federal court in Delaware to investigate the transactions — thought to have been made by lawyer Aron Mifsud Bonnici through crypto exchanges Poloniex and Coinbase. 

“… According to authorities in Malta, on November 25, 2018, Fenech inquired into the purchase of a Glock firearm and a Scorpion CZ automatic rifle for 0.9 bitcoin. On the same day, another individual, Aron Mifsud Bonnici, sent from his accounts at Coinbase and Poloniex 1 Bitcoin to Fenech, 0.9 bitcoin of which Fenech then used for the weapons purchase,” the request reads.

“One of the transactions that Mifsud Bonnici made that day to Fenech was in the amount of 0.46221 bitcoin from his Coinbase account to [a] wallet address. Moreover, on December 13, 2017, Mifsud Bonnici made a transaction of 1.3999 bitcoin from his Poloniex platform account to a BTC wallet,” (our emphasis).

Read more: Man pleads guilty to hiring hitman with bitcoin to murder woman who rejected him

Malta lawyer sent bitcoin to alleged murderer

Daphne Caruana Galizia was Malta’s most prominent investigative journalist until she was killed on October 16, 2017. Galizia was investigating the corrupt deal of Joseph Muscat’s Labor government with the gas-fired power station owned by Electrogas — which Yorgen Fenech was a major shareholder of.

The deal was marred by corruption and kick-backs between Fenech and the Minister of Energy, Konrad Mizzi, and the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Keith Schembri. Both had opened Panama companies to allegedly receive kickbacks from the supposed deal.

Joseph Muscat had resigned as Prime Minister in January 2020 after it was revealed that he and his chief of staff had a very close relationship with murder suspect Yorgen Fenech and remained in touch with him even before his arrest.

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