Christian Borg pleaded not guilty to money laundering and tax fraud when he was arraigned on Tuesday afternoon, alongside his girlfriend and six of his companies. The 31-year-old notorious car rental entrepreneur from St Julian’s and Monique Mizzi, 26, from Paola, were charged together with Princess Construction Limited, Princess Holdings Ltd, Princess Operations Limited, Zing Rental Limited, No Deposit Cars Limited and Lion Funding Limited with money laundering and criminal conspiracy. Borg and the companies were further charged with evading income tax and VAT, making false declarations for tax purposes, defrauding the Tax Commissioner and making fraudulent gains to the detriment of the government.
Company director Joseph Camenzuli was also in court as the legal representative of Borg’s companies. The court heard that criminal investigations were triggered by a request by the VAT department after Borg allegedly filed invoices for “hundreds of thousands of euros” and claimed VAT refunds on amounts classified as expenses. Inspector Tonjoe Farrugia said the investigation concluded that millions had been defrauded to the detriment of the VAT department.
The prosecution requested a freezing order over all assets of the defendants, given the money laundering charge. In light of recent amendments to the law on freezing orders, the specific amount to be frozen would be indicated by the prosecution within 90 days. A request for bail was objected to, at the risk of tampering w.