Yorgen Fenech’s former business partner admits going to Keith Schembri for reassurance after Fenech’s arrest

Yorgen Fenech’s former business partner Johann Cremona admitted on Thursday that he turned to disgraced former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri for reassurance after Fenech’s arrest, telling jurors he was panicking and feared he too would be dragged into the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder investigation.

Cremona, who ran BestPlay Gaming Ltd with Fenech, was testifying in the trial by jury against Fenech, who stands charged with complicity in Caruana Galizia’s voluntary homicide and criminal association. Fenech denies the charges.

The admission came after prosecutor Godwin Cini referred Cremona to a screenshot of a chat between himself and Schembri. Cremona confirmed the conversation was with Schembri.

In the exchange, Cremona told Schembri “ejja minn hemm,” (“let’s do this”), with Schembri replying “yes”.

“Arnaud irid ifotti” (“Arnaud wants to screw us”), Cremona continued, referring  to Assistant Commissioner and lead murder investigator Keith Arnaud, to which Schembri replied with “‘l ommu imma” (a vulgar reference implying Arnaud ought to screw his mother instead). Cremona replied with “we won’t testify.”

Asked by Madam Justice Edwina Grima why he felt the need to speak to Schembri, Cremona claimed he had nobody else to turn to.

“I had nobody to talk to, Yorgen was in prison already, there was nobody I could talk to. I was panicking,” Cremona told the court.

He said he knew Schembri had already been named as an accomplice and felt that he could use him to figure out whether Cremona was also implicated.

“I wasn’t trying to cause harm to Arnaud as such, it’s more that I didn’t have anyone to talk to. I spoke to him directly and asked him to tell me what was going on,” Cremona said.

The businessman told the court he feared he might also be blamed.

“Generally, I was afraid of whether I was going to be betrayed as well,” he said, adding that he had spent long hours under interrogation and was afraid investigators would somehow pin responsibility on him.

Asked why he thought Schembri could help him, Cremona said he had been hoping that “nothing would happen” and that nobody would be asked to testify.

He denied having any business relationship with Schembri and said the only time they spoke about the case was when Cremona wanted to know whether he would be brought into the criminal investigation.

“I was only interested in myself at that point,” Cremona said.

His testimony follows earlier evidence in which Cremona said Schembri had summoned him to Castille around September 2019, before Fenech’s arrest, asking whether Fenech had been in touch. Cremona had said Schembri appeared worried and later continued asking for updates through Signal.

Thursday’s sitting also saw prosecutors continue playing recordings of conversations between Cremona and pardoned middleman Melvin Theuma.

Cremona repeatedly told the court that his remarks in the recordings were either “bluff” or attempts to calm Theuma down, insisting he often said what he believed Theuma needed to hear.

“As I always say, I only know what Melvin told me…I was only telling him what I thought he needed to hear,” Cremona said.

In one recording, Cremona was heard telling Theuma that investigators already knew that Fenech had commissioned him. In another, he told Theuma that “the real strength of what you have lies in those recordings”.

Cremona said he spent more than a year and a half “taking care” of Theuma, trying to make sure he did not leave their conversations in an angry or unstable state.

He again linked his conduct to fear for his business, saying he had held back from revealing information because BestPlay was on the line and he had no other source of income.

“I didn’t want things to go that far, I had my business on the line,” he said.

The court also heard Cremona push back against Theuma’s claim that he and Fenech had met to plan a frame-up against former economy minister Chris Cardona – unprompted and without being asked about it.

Cremona mentioned that the encounter at Fenech’s Żebbuġ ranch, in which Theuma had claimed that they planned to pin the murder on Cardona, had actually been just a short, ordinary conversation after Theuma expressed pity for Fenech, who Cremona said was having marital problems.

Cini challenged that version, asking whether Theuma, who had been raging at Fenech, suddenly “had the heart” to pity him. Cremona insisted Theuma had embellished the story.

The prosecution also referred to recordings in which Cremona spoke about Theuma’s fear of going to the police, monthly payments to the Degiorgio brothers, and the possibility that Fenech and the executors had nothing to gain from exposing Theuma.

Throughout the sitting, Cremona continued to portray himself as trapped between Theuma’s panic, Fenech’s arrest, Schembri’s interest, and investigators pressing him over what he knew.

The trial continues on Thursday afternoon.