Lawyer exposes ID fraud

A woman who organised private parties where drugs flowed freely and Latin American prostitutes mingled with VIPs bragged about how she easily obtained licenses for her girls thanks to her “corrupt” connections.

Attorney and former councillor Jason Azzopardi revealed the party organisers’ shady dealings in a 59-page affidavit in which he called for an “urgent” official investigation into what appears to be a massive identity fraud case.

The lawyer claimed that since 2015, officials of the Identity Management Department had forged the backs of marriage certificates and other documents and issued about 18,000 ID cards.

Azzopardi said he was recently approached by “a man” who claimed to have attended several parties organized by the Colombian woman, a “heavy” (godlija) in her 40s with tattoos near her shoulders.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, shared this first-hand information with Azzopardi.

The woman openly bragged about how easy it was for her to obtain work permits for her workers through her connections at Identitá, the government agency that issues identity cards and residence permits.

She claimed these public officials were paid “huge sums of money” or invited for free to her parties, where cocaine “flowed freely” and prostitutes mingled with the VIPs.

“Members of Parliament from both parties, government ministers, doctors, lawyers, government officials and employees” attended the gatherings at a rented villa in Wardia, a flat in Mellieha city centre and a flat in St Julian’s.

A male contact frequently mentioned by the Colombian woman appears to be one of the masterminds identified by Azzopardi.

The Making of a Massive Fraud

In recent weeks, a number of people, including members of the police force, have come forward to share “very sensitive” information about the criminal organisation behind the alleged scam.

Third-country nationals (mostly Egyptians and Libyans) can exchange thousands of dollars in cash for “fast-track” ID cards. Documents are issued in record time, less than 30 days.

Azzopardi submitted as evidence three cases involving Egyptian citizens.

One of the cases involved a man who was charged in court a few weeks ago for document fraud.

His alleged offending included telling authorities he was married to a British woman in order to obtain permission to live and work in Malta.

But he maintains his innocence and his case is still ongoing.

The British woman was listed as his “spouse” on his marriage residence certificate, but she denied ever being married to him or any other Egyptian national.

She was tracked down by Malta’s immigration police and travelled to Malta to give evidence in the proceedings.

She told the court that someone from Identification Malta contacted her in 2022 and asked her to confirm her “marriage” to an Egyptian. She only learned about this when the police called her this year.

During that trial, the presiding judge ordered the police chief to investigate two agency officials who provided “completely contradictory” testimony.

Questioning by the defendants’ lawyers revealed that the personal information on the identity card or permit application was entered into the agency’s computer system by a former official who no longer works in the Identitá foreigners department.

Now, Azzopardi accuses the officer of playing a key role in this larger criminal scheme along with other corrupt government officials.

Together, they forge certificates so that third-country nationals gain the right to reside and move freely in the Schengen countries.

The TCNs were falsely described as being married to EU citizens, most of whom were from pre-Brexit Britain, and were “unknowingly” linked to a number of Maltese addresses with whom they had no connection.

Secondary entrance after office hours

The man identified as the mastermind was well known in TCN for his ability to easily obtain documents by paying through illegal channels.

TCN, which paid a huge sum for the forged documents, said they were directed to the Identitá office in Marsa after hours.

The man’s “right-hand man” officer let them in through a secondary entrance, took their photos and told them to come back a few days later to collect their documents.

An ID card costs between €2,000 and €8,000.

Azzopardi issued an important warning.

These fake certificates do not exist and “cannot be found in the Identitá files”.

“These documents appear to have been destroyed by the authors or employees of the (agency) who were complicit in this scam,” the lawyers claimed.

Investigators ‘diplomatically expelled’

Two TCNs who were prosecuted and jailed after being found in possession of forged documents have called for revealing the identity of the mastermind behind the scam as whistleblowers.

Their request was rejected and police did not seek a local court investigation.

An Egyptian man was stopped at the airport for his suspicious documents and later that day received a call from an alleged mastermind who had apparently received information about the arrest from a corrupt source within the police force.

A police inspector in charge of the investigation was “diplomatically withdrawn” from the case after it was made clear that criminal action would be taken against the mastermind.

That is why a judicial investigation is “urgently” needed.

Servers, mobile phones, computers, CCTV and cloud accounts associated with the suspect must be seized and preserved.

Those involved in the scam will be prosecuted for bribery, criminal conspiracy, trading in influence, fraud, forgery and money laundering.

There was sufficient prima facie evidence to show that the mastermind identified in Azzopardi’s application had “systematically” facilitated the fraud over a number of years.

The lawyer claimed that this was a “classic case of computer fraud and forgery,” made more serious by the fact that one of the suspects was a public official.