Magistrate Caroline Farrugia Frendo today ordered an inquiry into lawyer Jean Chetcuti Cauchi personally and in his capacity as director of Chetcuti Cauchi Advisors Ltd and Chetcuti Cauchi Consulting Ltd.
The magistrate upheld a request filed by NGO Repubblika for an inquiry into the IIP scheme operator after undercover footage of the director boasting of his connections emerged.
In a decree handed down today, the magistrate said that the magisterial inquiry was required to preserve evidence and that, therefore, once an inquiry was opened and further information of law breaches became available to the magistrate, the inquiry was to include these in its remit.
The magistrate gave the example of an inquiry into involuntary homicide after a car accident, but during the inquiry a large amount of illicit substances is also discovered. “Although the inquiry was not about this, the Inquiring Magistrate cannot close his eyes to it and must continue to preserve the evidence about the new turn the inquiry had taken.”
At this stage, the magistrate said, an inquiry to establish whether the facts reported amount to trading in influence under the criminal code was required.
