Adrian Hillman ‘Will Be Returning’ To Malta To Face Charges After UK Arrest
Adrian Hillman, the former managing director at Allied Newspapers, is set to return to Malta after being arrested in the UK.
He is cooperating with British police and will not be objecting an extradition process aimed at bringing him back to the island to face financial crime charges in a Maltese court, Times of Malta reported.
Hillman was arrested earlier this week following the issuing of a UK National Crime Agency arrest warrant. He will now be arraigned in a British court before being extradited back to Malta.
“He made his whereabouts known to authorities from day one,” Hillman’s lawyer, Stefano Filletti, said yesterday. “This is simply because he has always intended to come to Malta voluntarily and clear his name of these accusations. He intends to fully cooperate with the authorities and is not contesting the extradition. The extradition process itself takes time and he will be returning.”
Hillman has been reading for a news-related PhD at Goldsmiths University in the UK.
He will be brought to Malta on the back of the UK-EU surrender agreement. It replaced the European Arrest Warrants in place while the UK was part of the EU and functions very similar to it.
The potential charges follow an inquiry into a leaked Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit report which found that former chief of staff Keith Schembri had channelled over €650,000 to Hillman in suspicious payments between 2011 and 2015 in a deal which saw his company, Kasco, supply a printing press to Times of Malta in 2018.
It is believed that the funds were transferred via a number of offshore companies and accounts based in Gibraltar and Switzerland, as well as the infamous Pilatus Bank.
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