Hillman in court as Malta Enterprise CFO details aid given to Progress
Malta Enterprise’s chief financial outlined how the state agency granted Progress Press €1.5 million in aid between 2013 and 2017 when he testified in the case against Adrian Hillman on Tuesday. Joseph Zammit told a court that Progress Press had initially applied for a €1.1 million grant as well as an interest subsidy, to help it invest €5.5 million in printing machinery. The letter requesting the aid was sent to Malta Enterprise CEO Mario Vella by then Allied Group managing director Hillman and Progress Press managing director Michel Rizzo. Hillman faces charges of money laundering, fraud and other financial crimes. Rizzo is being charged in a separate case as a director of the company, although charges against him in a personal capacity have been dropped. Allied Group is the publisher of Times of Malta. Prosecutors allege that Progress received around €700,000 more than it was entitled to in aid from Malta Enterprise by including consumable expenses in its application when it should not have done so. A separate court has also heard that prosecutors believe Progress spent millions of dollars more on buying printing machines from Kasco than it should have, with suspected...