BREAKING/Prime Minister’s chief of staff and BVI company associate are Malta distributors for printing machines used by Crane Currency
I have since discovered that the world’s two main suppliers of printing machines for banknote manufacturers are KBA and Komori – and Kasco Technical, which is owned by the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Keith Schembri, is the official Malta distributor for Komori.. I was not surprised to discover, from the same sources, that Crane Currency will be using only Komori machines for its Malta operation.
Schembri’s co-owner in Kasco Technical is Malcolm Scerri, who you may have forgotten already is the third man in the corrupt British Virgin Islands combo involving Adrian Hillman, who was managing director at Progress Press – Malta’s leading purchaser of printing supplies and machinery – at the time. You can search ‘Malcolm Scerri’ in the box at the top of this page for more on that scandalous intrigue.
You can read more about it here. The British Virgin Islands companies were restructured after March 2013 using fraudulent bank documents on templates giving the address and details of an HSBC bank branch which had closed down more than a year earlier.
De La Rue, which has been printing currency in Malta for many years, has always used KBA machines. It bought just the one Komori machine from Kasco Technical when it set up its passport printing operation.
De La Rue has been investing heavily in printing machines in its operations outside Malta, particularly Komori machines, but not in Malta, where its printing machines have been allowed to depreciate towards the end of shutting down currency printing here on the island. Crane Currency is now taking on former De La Rue employees who either resigned, retired or were laid off. One industry specialist told me: “My view is that, ultimately, Crane’s choice of Malta has to do with the ready availability of skilled people in this sector due to the long years of De La Rue training and engagement. The way I see it is that the government was presented with Crane’s decision to set up shop here, and all they had to do was provide the land for the factory and possibly the fiscal incentives. The cherry on the cake for the trio at the top is that one of them, Keith Schembri, will be making a massive commission on the sale to Crane of its Komori machines. Whether it will be paid into his and Malcolm Scerri’s British Virgin Islands company accounts is a separate matter to be considered.”
The Prime Minister’s chief of staff (far right), whose company is the official Malta distributor for the Komori printing machines that Crane Currency will have to buy for its Malta operation, looks on with pleasure as the Prime Minister shakes on a deal with a Crane Currency executive.