PN Leader Adrian Delia remains under investigation for his alleged role in a Soho prostitution ring in the early 2000s, a superintendent from the Economic Crimes Unit has confirmed.

Speaking during the public inquiry into the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, Superintendent Ray Aquilina told the court that Delia has been under investigation ever since receiving an FIAU report on the matter in March 2018.

Former Economy Minister Chris Cardona, who had a role in the alleged scheme, is not under investigation, Aquilina said.

The FIAU investigation, which flagged a “reasonable suspicion of money laundering”, concerns a Barclays Bank account in Jersey that Delia had opened to receive the rents on Soho properties owned by his client Eucharist Bajada.

Journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia had revealed the alleged scheme while Delia was running for PN leader. She said that Bajada had rented out Soho properties to his younger brother Emanuel Bajada and his wife Eva Bajada, who then sub-let them to other landlords.

One of the properties, in Greek Street, was raided by the British police in 2003, and the couple who ran it was jailed for entrapping Eastern European women to London with the promise of domestic work but then forcing them to work as prostitutes by threatening to kill their families.

According to Caruana Galizia, the pimps who ran the brothels would pass on £2,000 in cash to Eve Bajada as ‘rent’, and she would then deposit it in smaller sums to a Jersey bank account owned by Adrian Delia.

Delia would then transfer that same money to bank accounts owned by two offshore companies, one in the Bahamas and one in the Marshall Islands, owned by Eucharist Bajada

Delia was director of the Bahamas company, along with former Economy Minister Chris Cardona – back then a Labour MP.

In December 2003, the Bajadas sent a legal letter to Delia after some £1.4 million which he should have paid to the offshore companies went missing.

Emanuel Bajada was convicted in Malta of running two brothels out of guest houses in Sliema and St Julian’s and chose Chris Cardona as his defence lawyer. The house in Greek Street was later transferred to Mark Barbara, who later ended  working as Cardona’s chauffeur, and then to a BVI offshore company with an unknown UBO.

Delia has repeatedly any wrongdoing or knowledge of wrongdoing and has said he is open to any police investigation in this regard.

Delia has denied all involvement, saying his signature on documents was forged. However, Eucharist Bajada’s son, Kris, who is a former close friend of Delia, came out from a coma to say that Delia’s signature was real, but maintained he did not have knowledge of the prostitution ring.