Tumas Group COO And Yorgen Fenech’s Bitcoin Facilitator Anthony Farrugia Granted Bail
Patrick Demanuele and Anthony Farrugia, two business associates of Yorgen Fenech, were granted bail by a court this morning in a money laundering case against them.
Farrugia and Demanuele were charged alongside Fenech himself and Nicholas Farrugia and Joseph Farrugia last week. They have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.
Demanuele is the Tumas Group COO and also held the role of COO at Glimmer Ltd – the company associated with this particular case. Farrugia is a director in the company which is owned by Fenech and his uncle Ray.
They are facing charges of fraud, embezzlement and money laundering.
Inspector Brian Camilleri this morning described a “system” to the court that would see Nicholas Cachia deposit €200 in his Portomaso live gaming account, which would then yield bonuses running into the tens of thousands of Euro. Only a fraction of the money would be transferred to his bank account, however.
Lawyer Stephen Tonna Lowell, appearing for the accused, stressed that both his clients had refused to authorise further transactions to Cachia since it was deemed not to be commercially viable since Cachia was not actually placing bets.
The inspector told the court that during questioning, Farrugia had said that the deposits were only intended to “test the system”.
In arguing for bail, Tonna Lowell insisted that Demanuele and Farrugia had nothing to do with other money laundering cases, adding that it was disproportionate for his clients to have been charged under arrest.
Tonna Lowell questioned how a case over €4,800 could be considered serious enough to merit the accused’s continued detention.
Bail was granted against a deposit of €10,000 and a personal guarantee of €15,000. Both men will need to sign a bail book daily.
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