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Speaker 1: And O to the listeners. This episode contains a reference

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Speaker 1: to suicide.

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Speaker 2: Corruption, especially between the media and politicians. Eats away at

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Speaker 2: the heart of democracy.

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Speaker 3: Cord in prison, Malta. Right here we will early twenty eighteen,

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Speaker 3: about six months after Daphne's murder. Daphne's free assassins, Vincent Lakoff,

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Speaker 3: Chinese George and Alfred the Bean have been held here

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Speaker 3: on pre trial detention since before Christmas. What follows is

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Speaker 3: a dramatization based on courtroom testimony by Vincent the kaff Muscat.

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Speaker 3: We provided color in places without changing any of the

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Speaker 3: material facts or allegations. The defendants are entitled to regular

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Speaker 3: meetings with their lawyer, and today one of the those

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Speaker 3: conferences is scheduled. The three of them are gathered here

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Speaker 3: in the meeting room, sitting alongside one another, a guard

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Speaker 3: by the door.

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Speaker 1: Three middle aged contract killers, no doubt familiar with the

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Speaker 1: frequent rituals of Malta's legal system when it comes to

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Speaker 1: organized crime, arrest, interrogation, delay, confinement, postponement and then all

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Speaker 1: too often temporary release which eventually becomes permanent.

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Speaker 3: And are so often in prison life at the moment

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Speaker 3: they're stuck wasting their lawyer has so far failed to

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Speaker 3: show up.

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Speaker 1: Since the arrests, things have mostly been going in the favor.

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Speaker 1: In the outside world, the battle to uncover the plot

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Speaker 1: to kill Daphane has reached a stalemate. Public protests that

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Speaker 1: Daphanie's murder have become a permanent feature of Maltese politics,

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Speaker 1: but the government appears to be weathering them.

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Speaker 3: Jephane's family are trying to bring international political pressure to

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Speaker 3: bear on the Mall's government, and they're helping a team

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Speaker 3: of investigative journalists to reinvestigate loose ends in her stories,

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Speaker 3: but so far, nothing that's been published has led to

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Speaker 3: a breakthrough.

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Speaker 1: The one man who does know all the details of

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Speaker 1: the plot, Melvin the Middleman, is struggling to keep his

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Speaker 1: life together under the strain of the secrets he carries.

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Speaker 1: He's drinking heavily, even contemplating ending it all, but so

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Speaker 1: far he is keeping his silence, and all the while,

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Speaker 1: the accused architect of the murder, Mister alleged Mastermind, remains

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Speaker 1: unnoticed by law enforcement. His wealth and influence probably allow

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Speaker 1: him to remain one step ahead of the authorities at

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Speaker 1: any time.

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Speaker 3: So although the three men in this prison interview room

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Speaker 3: are locked up and under investigation for Daphanes's murder. They

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Speaker 3: have reason to be quietly confident. If they can just

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Speaker 3: stick together and keep their mouths shut, all his attention

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Speaker 3: should eventually go away, just like it did after all

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Speaker 3: the other car bomb assassinations in Malta.

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Speaker 1: But on this day, for the first time, something's not right.

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Speaker 1: In fact, it's very very wrong. Ho Chinese George motions

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Speaker 1: Vincent the Cough to come closer, close enough so he

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Speaker 1: can whisper without the guard.

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Speaker 4: Hearing Lisma station by that chilt mind continct with that

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Speaker 4: it's my child.

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Speaker 1: Chinese George tells Vincent that he didn't sleep a wink

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Speaker 1: last night. Something surprising was bothering him his ace. Vincent

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Speaker 1: listens with a straight face, unresponsive. Chinese George goes on,

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Speaker 1: does Vincent want to tell him something? Are you sure?

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Speaker 1: Because he thinks there's something Vincent should be telling him.

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Speaker 3: Again, Vincent the Cough doesn't respond, chance.

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Speaker 1: It and there it is, the accusation spoken out loud. Vincent,

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Speaker 1: you want to speak at the depot. The depot is

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Speaker 1: multi slang for police headquarters. In other words, somehow George

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Speaker 1: has discovered that Vincent has begun speaking to the police.

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Speaker 3: Secretly, Chinese George is accusing his fellow murderer of breaking

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Speaker 3: the criminal code of silence after years of knowing each

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Speaker 3: other and working together from the Carmel Kirk Coop drive

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Speaker 3: by shooting to Daphne's murder. George believes that Vince is

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Speaker 3: snitching and snitching about the murder of Daphne Carona Calizzia.

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Speaker 1: Before Vince can respond, their lawyer finally entered the role.

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Speaker 1: The meeting begins as if nothing has been said. But

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Speaker 1: from now on everything has changed between Chinese George and

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Speaker 1: Vincent de Kov. The betrayals have begun.

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Speaker 3: From iHeart Podcasts, Topic Studios in Vespucci, I'm John Sweeney

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Speaker 3: and I'm Manuel Delia and this is Crooks Everywhere, Episode eight,

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Speaker 3: The Lion and the Mosquito.

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Speaker 5: I was there for one of the earlier sittings, actually

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Speaker 5: present in the courtroom, and what impressed me was he

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Speaker 5: had George, the George Jaw, who sat in the middle.

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Speaker 5: His brother was sitting to his right side, I believe,

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Speaker 5: and Vince to his left, and there was this complete silence.

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Speaker 3: Kurt Sansone has watched Vincent Lakoff Muscat and the two

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Speaker 3: Di Giorgia brothers, Chinese George and Alfred the Bean in Court.

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Speaker 3: He is the executive editor of Malta Today and has

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Speaker 3: been covering the investigation into Daphnese murder for years.

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Speaker 6: Given the dynamic between them, I would say Vince Muscat

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Speaker 6: was sort of the person who tagged along to the brothers.

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Speaker 1: The junior partner, and perhaps he'd grown tired of all that,

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Speaker 1: or since that being the junior partner made him more vulnerable, disposable,

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Speaker 1: not part of the inner circle.

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Speaker 6: They didn't give him all the information. I mean, they

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Speaker 6: just gave him the information that he needed to know. Listen,

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Speaker 6: we're going to do this. You'll be here at this time.

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Speaker 3: After they're arrested. Vincent Lakoff may also have been under

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Speaker 3: greater financial pressure than the other two killers. We don't

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Speaker 3: know how much of the unwilling financial support from Melvin

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Speaker 3: the middleman reached Vincent. Certainly no one bought his family

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Speaker 3: member's pedigree dogs from China.

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Speaker 6: It was mainly George, that GEORGEA and Alfred the Georgia

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Speaker 6: doing the dealings and making the arrangements which he would

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Speaker 6: then obviously willingly tag along and being involved in.

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Speaker 3: Or maybe Vincent has realized that Daphne's murder had provoked

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Speaker 3: a backlash too large for any of them to ride

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Speaker 3: out in silence. If that theory is true, it's a

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Speaker 3: real tribute to the Maltese public, the ordinary people who

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Speaker 3: keep attending the demonstrations and protests in Daphne's memory for

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Speaker 3: month after month after month, refusing to let the story die,

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Speaker 3: and without knowing it, spooking her killers.

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Speaker 1: Whatever Vincent's reasons, it begins to see greatly negotiating with

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Speaker 1: the police for a reduced sentence or a pardon in

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Speaker 1: exchange for a confession. And the first piece of information

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Speaker 1: he's offering in exchange for his freedom is the name

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Speaker 1: of the next guy up in the chain, the man

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Speaker 1: who hired him and the the Georgio brothers, Melvin Toma,

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Speaker 1: the increasingly panicy Middleman.

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Speaker 3: But it turns out that an offering to become an informant,

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Speaker 3: Vincent the Cough is miscalculated in two crucial ways. He's

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Speaker 3: both underestimated and overestimated multice law enforcement. Underestimated because in fact,

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Speaker 3: the authorities are already close to finding out Melvin the

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Speaker 3: Middleman's identity. Anyway, the di Giorgio brothers constant demands for

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Speaker 3: donations from Melvin has left multiple clues that the authorities

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Speaker 3: are able to follow.

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Speaker 1: Whenever Chinese George or Alfred de Bean called Mario de Georgio,

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Speaker 1: the police are listening, The brothers never refer to Melvin

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Speaker 1: by name, instead referring to him as dead guy. But

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Speaker 1: it's obvious to the police eavesdroppers that that guy is

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Speaker 1: a crucial connection to whoever else was involved in Daphnie's skinning.

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Speaker 3: By the time Vincent Leakoff begins negotiating at the depot

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Speaker 3: that's the police headquarters, detectives are already watching Mario di

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Speaker 3: Giorgio's house, taking photos of Melvin when he visits.

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Speaker 1: But Vincent d Koff has also overestimated moul dieselaw enforcement.

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Speaker 1: In spite of his knowledge of the crime world, he

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Speaker 1: clearly hopes that the police will be able to keep

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Speaker 1: his betrayal less secret.

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Speaker 3: Perhaps he should have known better. Even by Maltese standards,

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Speaker 3: this is not a murder investigation that is secure or

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Speaker 3: anything like it. As we've heard, every important breakthrough in

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Speaker 3: the case is discussed in the presence of Prime Minister

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Speaker 3: Joseph Muscat, his chief of staff Keith Schembri and Jeopardy

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Speaker 3: Police Commissioner Sylvio val Letter. And as we've also heard,

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Speaker 3: those lasts who are both close personal friends of mister

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Speaker 3: alleged Mastermind himself, Keith Skembrie texts mister alleged Mastermind on

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Speaker 3: a near daily basis. Deputy Police Commissioner Silvio the Letter

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Speaker 3: will later share a family holiday with him.

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Speaker 1: So it is not surprising that Vincent de Koff's betrayal

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Speaker 1: very quickly reaches mister alleged Mastermind, and then that information

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Speaker 1: quickly moves down the chain. According to Paul Karwna Galizia's book,

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Speaker 1: when mister Alleged Mastermind passes on the news to Melvin,

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Speaker 1: the middleman, he immediately panics, unable to believe it. It's

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Speaker 1: not true, it's not true about the cough.

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Speaker 3: Melvin's already spent thousands of euros of his own money

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Speaker 3: paying for gifts and treats to keep the assassins happy

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Speaker 3: behind bars, trying to avoid exactly this outcome.

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Speaker 1: But eventually he does believe it. Naturally, he doesn't hesitate

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Speaker 1: to pass the bad news further on down the line

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Speaker 1: to Chinese George and Alfred de Bean the contract killers

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Speaker 1: who are also being betrayed. They are amazed as well,

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Speaker 1: and then no doubt ready to take action. Melvin the

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Speaker 1: Middleman must know that by informing the the Georgia family

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Speaker 1: of Vincent de Kof's betrayal, he could well be triggering

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Speaker 1: further than the violence, that he could be signing another

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Speaker 1: man's death warrant. And perhaps that's what he intends. We

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Speaker 1: can't know, whatever the truth. It's soon after this that

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Speaker 1: Vincent de Koff receives that sinister warning while waiting for

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Speaker 1: his lawyer to arrive. And that's how Malta's circle of

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Speaker 1: corruption works, highly sensitive information apparently flowing from a top

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Speaker 1: secret police interrogation, to a high level police briefing, to

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Speaker 1: an alleged criminal mastermind, to a middlemen, and onto two

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Speaker 1: brutal underworld hitmen.

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Speaker 3: After the warning, Vincent the Cough is well aware of

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Speaker 3: the danger he's in now. After all, he used to

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Speaker 3: be part of the death squad. He requests and gets

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Speaker 3: additional protection in the prison he's now guarded. When he eats,

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Speaker 3: separated from his fellow killers, he asks his family to

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Speaker 3: bring in food so he doesn't have to touch the

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Speaker 3: prison meals, who knows what strings that Georgia's might be

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Speaker 3: able to pull inside the prison kitchen, and.

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Speaker 1: There are the strings they can pull outside. Later in

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Speaker 1: Quartron testimony, Vincent Kof said he received a warning that

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Speaker 1: his partner and their children might be killed in an

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Speaker 1: acid attack, So isn't just watching his own back.

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Speaker 3: Jason, as a party Daphnese family lawyer, has experience of

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Speaker 3: what these kind of threats can be like. Years later,

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Speaker 3: as a party, cross examined Chinese George Georgio in court.

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Speaker 3: Chinese George didn't appreciate the line of questioning, so in

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Speaker 3: front of the judge, the police, in the entire court,

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Speaker 3: he stood up and began saying things that made Jason

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Speaker 3: as a party feel threatened.

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Speaker 7: If I say it was an enjoyable experience, I would

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Speaker 7: be lying. George de Georgia was livid when when he

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Speaker 7: was looking at me, and I do remember his eyes,

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Speaker 7: I cold ice cold eyes looking at me, terribly angry,

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Speaker 7: using very foul language and yes threateningly, and I remember

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Speaker 7: you could hear a pin drop.

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Speaker 1: After these courtroom threats, Jason as a part of the

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Speaker 1: receives offers of asistance from the police, and the threats

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Speaker 1: have never been carried out, but back in twenty eighteen,

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Speaker 1: Vincent d Kov's decision to turn informant has clearly painted

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Speaker 1: a target on his back. And it's not just the

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Speaker 1: Georgia Emily. He has to worry about the Talmaxar brothers.

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Speaker 1: The alleged bomb suppliers also allegedly make a friendly approach

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Speaker 1: to Vincent Dakoff's family, offering them money if the Cough

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Speaker 1: retracts the statements he's giving to the police. They too

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Speaker 1: appear fully informed about Vincentnakoff's confidential discussions with the police.

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Speaker 3: After Vincent Nakov's decision to speak to the police, Melvin

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Speaker 3: the Middleman begins to feel in even greater danger. As

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Speaker 3: we heard, Melvin is already worried that he knows too

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Speaker 3: much about mister alleged Masterminds crimes. That is, in spite

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Speaker 3: of their closeness, he has become a liability to mister

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Speaker 3: alleged Mastermind. If Vincent the Cough gives Melvin's name to

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Speaker 3: the police, mister alleged Mastermind will have an even stronger

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Speaker 3: incentive to have his old friend disappeared. Melvin the Middleman's

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Speaker 3: drinking and drug taking accelerates. He's spiraling downwards.

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Speaker 1: It is around this time that Melvin the Middleman drunkenly

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Speaker 1: climbs onto the roof of his own house and contemplates

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Speaker 1: ending at all, But instead he has a change of heart.

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Speaker 1: Instead of jumping, he decides to fight and to use

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Speaker 1: the secrets he's carrying to protect himself.

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Speaker 3: Soon after, he purchases a second smartphone, but this phone

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Speaker 3: isn't for making calls. Instead, one day at home, he

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Speaker 3: switches on the new phone and sets it to silent,

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Speaker 3: an aeroplane mode. He needs to make sure that it

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Speaker 3: cannot receive a call or make a sound. His girlfriend's

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Speaker 3: daughter has shown him how to do this.

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Speaker 1: More than technology isn't really his.

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Speaker 3: Thing, Melvin the Middleman opens a voice recorder app on

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Speaker 3: the phone and sets it running, allowing the device to

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Speaker 3: record every sound in the room around him. His girlfriend's

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00:16:16,880 --> 00:16:20,320
Speaker 3: daughter has shown him how to do this too. Now,

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Speaker 3: with the voice app running, he locks the phone and

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Speaker 3: slips it into his sock, where it stays hidden. From

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Speaker 3: now on, whenever he meets mister alleged Mastermind, every word

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Speaker 3: will be secretly recorded. Every incriminating remark will be stored

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Speaker 3: like the cough. Melvin the Middleman is breaking the ultimate

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Speaker 3: taboo of a moral faminalism. He's betraying family.

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Speaker 1: Melvin Hobbs dead. The tapes might just give him enough

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Speaker 1: leverage to keep himself alive.

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Speaker 8: Bevin Toma was saying, Listen is very well connected, immensely rich.

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Speaker 8: I'm no one compared to him. I don't have friends

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Speaker 8: in high places, and so better take precautions.

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Speaker 1: Years later, in court, Melvin Toma will describe mister alleged

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Speaker 1: Mastermind as a lion and himself as a mosquito in comparison,

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Speaker 1: a being that can be crushed without trace.

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Speaker 3: And soon it is not just audio recordings. Melvin the

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00:17:31,320 --> 00:17:35,639
Speaker 3: middle Man begins building an entire archive of evidence. It

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Speaker 3: includes the selfie of himself with the Prime Minister's chief

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Speaker 3: of Staff, Keith Skembrie, the two of them ah me

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00:17:43,480 --> 00:17:48,159
Speaker 3: in ah during that bizarre tour of government offices organized

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Speaker 3: by mister alleged Mastermind.

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Speaker 1: One taped conversation is particularly revealing. On the tape, mister

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Speaker 1: alleged Mastermind describes the moment when he informed Keith Kembri

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Speaker 1: that Daphne had been murdered on his alleged Mastermind's personal orders.

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Speaker 1: That the whole crime was his plan.

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Speaker 9: Keach Cambrie froze, his face became white, eshen white. You

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00:18:16,720 --> 00:18:21,760
Speaker 9: can hear him saying this to Melvin Tooma on tape

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Speaker 9: being secretly taped recorded by Melvin Tooma months after the murder.

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Speaker 1: The implication is that Keach Cambrie wasn't in on the

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Speaker 1: plan to kill Daphne and wasn't even aware that alleged

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00:18:32,800 --> 00:18:37,840
Speaker 1: Mastermind was responsible, and so, according to mister alleged Mastermind,

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Speaker 1: Keith's reaction to hearing this confession is shocked. Sch Caambree's

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Speaker 1: ashen white reaction suggests both his personal lack of involvement,

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00:18:47,680 --> 00:18:50,800
Speaker 1: but also that he immediately realizes this might be an

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Speaker 1: unimaginable disaster for him politically, that he is now complicit

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Speaker 1: and the most famous murder in Malta's modern history.

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Speaker 3: But if this is the case, keefs Gmbrie does not

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Speaker 3: denounce mister Alleged Mastermind. He does not contact Europe's police

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Speaker 3: agency europe On. He does not contact the Multi's police

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00:19:13,440 --> 00:19:17,840
Speaker 3: with this breakthrough in the case. Instead, he pulls himself

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00:19:17,920 --> 00:19:24,880
Speaker 3: together and continues working with his close friend mister Alleged Mastermind,

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Speaker 3: helping him to cover up the crime by allegedly sharing

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00:19:29,880 --> 00:19:35,560
Speaker 3: confidential details of the investigation. To this day, keeps Gambrie

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00:19:35,640 --> 00:19:41,200
Speaker 3: has denied any wrongdoing and denies leaking information. But in truth,

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Speaker 3: by now it is becoming too late for a successful

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Speaker 3: cover up. Never underestimate the mosquito.

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Speaker 1: There's another reason why the cover up being ground. Alleged

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Speaker 1: mastermind might be unreveling. Just as Daphnese killers are beginning

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Speaker 1: to turn on each other, the Deafney Project, the international

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Speaker 1: team of journalists who gathered to follow up lose ends

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Speaker 1: in her stories, are continuing to.

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Speaker 3: Work, searching, above all, for the story that might reveal

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Speaker 3: the motive for her murder.

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Speaker 1: They get some impressive scoops. We've heard how the Definite

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Speaker 1: Project reported on Malta's passport sales scheme, its public hospital scandal,

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00:20:28,880 --> 00:20:33,960
Speaker 1: and the shady deals with Azerbaijan, but so far still

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00:20:34,040 --> 00:20:36,240
Speaker 1: nothing that seems linked to Daphne's murder.

285
00:20:39,920 --> 00:20:43,920
Speaker 3: Then Jacob Borche, a Daphney Project reporter for the Terms

286
00:20:43,960 --> 00:20:48,520
Speaker 3: of Malta, gets an intriguing anonymous tip. The tip off

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00:20:49,080 --> 00:20:52,719
Speaker 3: is to look up one phrase in Daphne's entire journalistic output,

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Speaker 3: seventeen Black along with Stephen Gray, a reporter from v

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00:21:00,440 --> 00:21:03,240
Speaker 3: and it so happens a friend of ours. Jacob begins

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00:21:03,280 --> 00:21:05,560
Speaker 3: searching through Daphne's archive for every mention.

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00:21:07,040 --> 00:21:10,040
Speaker 1: The first blog post to mention it is typical Daphne,

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00:21:10,680 --> 00:21:14,920
Speaker 1: a cryptic, intriguing teaser. The whole post is just one

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00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:15,800
Speaker 1: sentence long.

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Speaker 2: February twenty second, twenty seventeen. Seventeen Black the name of

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00:21:20,720 --> 00:21:22,359
Speaker 2: a company incorporated in Dubai.

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00:21:23,040 --> 00:21:27,760
Speaker 1: Underneath that sentence are some photos of politicians the key ones.

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00:21:28,040 --> 00:21:31,440
Speaker 1: First a picture of the Prime Minister Joseph Moscat, second

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Speaker 1: a photo of Chief of Staff Keach Cambri, and finally

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00:21:34,720 --> 00:21:38,119
Speaker 1: a photo of Health and Energy Minister Conrad Mitzi. And

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00:21:38,240 --> 00:21:41,800
Speaker 1: that's it. What could be linking these powerful men with

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00:21:41,880 --> 00:21:46,760
Speaker 1: a Dubai company called seventeen Black. Of course, the last

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00:21:46,800 --> 00:21:49,760
Speaker 1: two men, she Cambria and Midsi, are the same politicians

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00:21:49,920 --> 00:21:53,560
Speaker 1: Daphne had already identified in the Panama Papers as owning

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00:21:53,720 --> 00:21:57,040
Speaker 1: secret shell companies and Panama. And when the Panama paper

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00:21:57,119 --> 00:22:02,040
Speaker 1: scandal broke, some mysteries had remained unsolved. Schambrie and Midzi's

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00:22:02,119 --> 00:22:06,119
Speaker 1: carefully hidden Panama companies had all hardly been used. What

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00:22:06,320 --> 00:22:09,280
Speaker 1: secret assets had these politicians been expecting to receive.

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00:22:10,240 --> 00:22:13,240
Speaker 3: Most of the other seventeen Black blog posts don't seem

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00:22:13,359 --> 00:22:15,440
Speaker 3: likely obvious place to finances though.

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Speaker 2: February twenty second, twenty seventeen, I have discovered that this

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00:22:20,119 --> 00:22:23,399
Speaker 2: clique is using a company called seventeen Black, which is

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00:22:23,440 --> 00:22:28,040
Speaker 2: incorporated in the United Arab Emirates UAE and registered in Dubai,

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00:22:28,600 --> 00:22:32,400
Speaker 2: to move large sums of money around. The ultimate beneficial

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00:22:32,440 --> 00:22:35,920
Speaker 2: ownership of seventeen Black is concealed by nominees protected under

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00:22:36,080 --> 00:22:36,720
Speaker 2: UAE law.

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Speaker 1: Quick translation, the ultimate beneficial ownership is concealed means the

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00:22:43,200 --> 00:22:44,280
Speaker 1: rill owner is a secret.

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Speaker 3: In other words, definitely believe that seventeen Black was a

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00:22:48,040 --> 00:22:51,359
Speaker 3: company acting as yet another tool to hide payments to

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00:22:51,480 --> 00:22:55,280
Speaker 3: Maltese politicians and powerful men. She also found that the

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00:22:55,400 --> 00:23:00,479
Speaker 3: Maltese financial authorities had investigated seventeen Black and found there

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00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:04,280
Speaker 3: was quotes a reasonable suspicion of money laundering and all

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00:23:04,440 --> 00:23:07,800
Speaker 3: the proceeds of crime on quotes. That is to say,

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00:23:08,440 --> 00:23:11,959
Speaker 3: it looked pretty dodgy, but no action was taken by

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00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:17,560
Speaker 3: the police. Dafely also didn't know who was behind seventeen Black.

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00:23:18,240 --> 00:23:22,320
Speaker 3: She hadn't discovered who, let's say, was the alleged mastermind

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00:23:22,760 --> 00:23:24,000
Speaker 3: of seventeen Black.

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Speaker 1: And gradually the scandal of seventeen Black was overshadowed by

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00:23:27,840 --> 00:23:33,480
Speaker 1: other scandals, even on Dafnew's on blog at this point

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00:23:33,600 --> 00:23:36,800
Speaker 1: after her death, it still isn't clear why that anonymous

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00:23:36,840 --> 00:23:41,080
Speaker 1: tipster had suggested looking into seventeen Black, but the Definitely

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00:23:41,119 --> 00:23:43,840
Speaker 1: Project reporters aren't about to give up easily.

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Speaker 10: A company called seventeen Black was playing in a really

334
00:23:49,200 --> 00:23:53,840
Speaker 10: important role in all of this, but we didn't have

335
00:23:53,960 --> 00:23:58,159
Speaker 10: a lot more and we didn't have proof, and so

336
00:23:58,400 --> 00:23:59,840
Speaker 10: we went back to the data.

337
00:24:02,840 --> 00:24:05,600
Speaker 3: Bassi and Obermayer and the rest of the Daphne Project

338
00:24:05,760 --> 00:24:10,000
Speaker 3: organizers decided to take a fresh approach. They would re

339
00:24:10,200 --> 00:24:13,359
Speaker 3: examine some of the original leak files that had been

340
00:24:13,440 --> 00:24:17,679
Speaker 3: behind the Panama Papers scoop, and in this huge database

341
00:24:17,760 --> 00:24:22,000
Speaker 3: of files they find some leaked emails that hadn't seemed

342
00:24:22,040 --> 00:24:24,080
Speaker 3: important when Daphne was alive.

343
00:24:24,800 --> 00:24:28,480
Speaker 1: In the middle of a haystack, a journalistic needle has appeared.

344
00:24:29,280 --> 00:24:31,840
Speaker 10: We were looking inside that that part of data, and

345
00:24:31,960 --> 00:24:34,680
Speaker 10: we found this email which didn't say a lot, but

346
00:24:34,800 --> 00:24:38,560
Speaker 10: it said that there was a company called seventeen Black

347
00:24:39,200 --> 00:24:41,399
Speaker 10: and that Metro to receive money.

348
00:24:44,600 --> 00:24:48,399
Speaker 1: That leaked email allows the Dafney project to confirm what

349
00:24:48,560 --> 00:24:52,119
Speaker 1: Deafhney had alleged but hadn't been able to prove. It

350
00:24:52,200 --> 00:24:56,239
Speaker 1: suggests that government ministers Conrad Mitzi and Keach Company had

351
00:24:56,320 --> 00:25:00,880
Speaker 1: been expecting to receive had been promised regular large amounts

352
00:25:00,920 --> 00:25:06,680
Speaker 1: of money moving into their Panama holding companies. All from

353
00:25:06,760 --> 00:25:07,800
Speaker 1: seventeen Black.

354
00:25:09,280 --> 00:25:13,320
Speaker 4: Times of Mota eighty eight April twenty and eighty A

355
00:25:13,480 --> 00:25:16,520
Speaker 4: total of one point six million dollars one point three

356
00:25:16,600 --> 00:25:20,399
Speaker 4: million euros was transferred to seventeen Black to the BI

357
00:25:20,520 --> 00:25:23,760
Speaker 4: company listed as one of the target clients which would

358
00:25:23,800 --> 00:25:27,160
Speaker 4: pay in money to Keych Cambrees and Conrad Midsi's once

359
00:25:27,320 --> 00:25:30,680
Speaker 4: secret Panama companies. League to documents show.

360
00:25:32,560 --> 00:25:37,119
Speaker 1: The definitely project breaking this story was huge. Midsi ande

361
00:25:37,160 --> 00:25:41,280
Speaker 1: Cambree deny wrongdoing, proof that in spite of all these denials,

362
00:25:41,800 --> 00:25:44,880
Speaker 1: the emails showed that Maltese politicians had planned to enrich

363
00:25:44,960 --> 00:25:48,520
Speaker 1: themselves secretly while in office, and they were going to

364
00:25:48,600 --> 00:25:52,560
Speaker 1: do so using a company that Maltese investigators considered under

365
00:25:52,600 --> 00:25:55,640
Speaker 1: suspicion for money laundering and criminal activity.

366
00:25:56,240 --> 00:26:00,080
Speaker 10: And so this was the missing piece that helped to

367
00:26:01,520 --> 00:26:06,399
Speaker 10: connect the Panama papers and to the money right, and

368
00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:11,040
Speaker 10: so once we got puzzled that together we had a

369
00:26:11,800 --> 00:26:12,560
Speaker 10: strong lead.

370
00:26:12,920 --> 00:26:16,960
Speaker 3: But there is still one big question unanswered. Around this time,

371
00:26:17,400 --> 00:26:21,120
Speaker 3: a group of demonstrators stage of protests outside government officers

372
00:26:21,600 --> 00:26:25,480
Speaker 3: with placards reading who owns seventeen black?

373
00:26:25,920 --> 00:26:26,400
Speaker 1: Exactly?

374
00:26:26,880 --> 00:26:27,040
Speaker 6: Who?

375
00:26:27,760 --> 00:26:31,440
Speaker 1: Who was planning to bribe these politicians? That question on

376
00:26:31,560 --> 00:26:34,240
Speaker 1: the blucards is the question that everyone in more Thanao

377
00:26:34,520 --> 00:26:36,720
Speaker 1: once answered, everyone.

378
00:26:36,680 --> 00:26:42,240
Speaker 3: Except mister alleged Mastermind. Mister alleged Mastermind can't afford for

379
00:26:42,320 --> 00:26:45,119
Speaker 3: that question to be answered, and he knows that the

380
00:26:45,200 --> 00:26:48,280
Speaker 3: closer the Daphne Project gets to his friend Keith Schenbury,

381
00:26:48,840 --> 00:26:52,560
Speaker 3: the closer they will get to him. Because you won't

382
00:26:52,600 --> 00:26:55,720
Speaker 3: be surprised to hear this, The real owner of seventeen

383
00:26:55,800 --> 00:27:00,920
Speaker 3: Black is our mister alleged Mastermind, and he must know

384
00:27:01,560 --> 00:27:04,520
Speaker 3: it might not be long before his real identity is

385
00:27:04,640 --> 00:27:05,720
Speaker 3: exposed and.

386
00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:11,600
Speaker 1: The Deafnite Project are not his only problem now. Around

387
00:27:11,680 --> 00:27:15,200
Speaker 1: this time too, the spring of twenty eighteen, the Maltese

388
00:27:15,240 --> 00:27:18,320
Speaker 1: police investigation of the Dafnie murder begins to pick up

389
00:27:18,359 --> 00:27:22,520
Speaker 1: the pace, and for the first time, mister Alleged Mastermind

390
00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:25,920
Speaker 1: is mentioned by name. In the police investigation as a

391
00:27:26,040 --> 00:27:31,080
Speaker 1: person of interest, even a potential suspect. For the first time,

392
00:27:31,280 --> 00:27:34,640
Speaker 1: he is on the investigation's radar. For the first time,

393
00:27:34,800 --> 00:27:39,320
Speaker 1: his wealth and power are no longer shielding him. We

394
00:27:39,400 --> 00:27:41,960
Speaker 1: don't know for sure if he finds this out, but

395
00:27:42,080 --> 00:27:44,080
Speaker 1: given how he has a network that has told him

396
00:27:44,080 --> 00:27:47,840
Speaker 1: about every other detail of the investigation, it seems likely

397
00:27:47,920 --> 00:27:51,080
Speaker 1: he knows that the net is slowly closing in around him,

398
00:27:51,680 --> 00:27:51,960
Speaker 1: and so.

399
00:27:52,520 --> 00:27:55,480
Speaker 3: Like Vincent the Cough and Melvin the Middleman before him,

400
00:27:56,040 --> 00:28:00,480
Speaker 3: mister alleged Mastermind begins to crash slowly on the pressure,

401
00:28:01,119 --> 00:28:06,000
Speaker 3: buckling under the stress of avoiding justice. First he turns

402
00:28:06,040 --> 00:28:09,200
Speaker 3: the cocaine his daily use, ballooning as he tries to

403
00:28:09,280 --> 00:28:13,320
Speaker 3: remain in control, and then he begins using tranquilizers to

404
00:28:13,440 --> 00:28:17,760
Speaker 3: calm himself down. Unlike Melvin the Middleman, he has private

405
00:28:17,840 --> 00:28:20,840
Speaker 3: doctors to supply him with as many pills as he

406
00:28:20,920 --> 00:28:25,920
Speaker 3: can take, but the drugs make him unstable, unpredictable, less

407
00:28:26,160 --> 00:28:28,840
Speaker 3: able to keep spinning all the plates.

408
00:28:30,680 --> 00:28:34,760
Speaker 1: Then, around eighteen months later, in November twenty nineteen, it

409
00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:39,480
Speaker 1: happens again. A new Defnite project story is jointly published

410
00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:42,720
Speaker 1: by the Times of Malta and writers and this does

411
00:28:42,840 --> 00:28:43,680
Speaker 1: have all the answers.

412
00:28:44,840 --> 00:28:51,280
Speaker 4: Thousand Mortar ninth November two thouy and nineteen exclusive seventeen

413
00:28:51,360 --> 00:28:56,160
Speaker 4: Black owner identified as local power station businessman. Local criminal

414
00:28:56,320 --> 00:29:01,080
Speaker 4: investigators have been handed an intelligence report aiming the electro

415
00:29:01,160 --> 00:29:05,200
Speaker 4: Gas power station director and businessman as the owner of

416
00:29:05,320 --> 00:29:08,560
Speaker 4: the mystery Dubai company seventeen Black.

417
00:29:11,200 --> 00:29:14,680
Speaker 3: A story that fills in the final blanks that daphnely

418
00:29:14,800 --> 00:29:16,640
Speaker 3: didn't live long enough to complete.

419
00:29:17,240 --> 00:29:20,800
Speaker 1: The Defney project identified the owner of seventeen Black as

420
00:29:20,880 --> 00:29:25,360
Speaker 1: one of Malta's richest entrepreneurs, the owner of luxury hotels,

421
00:29:25,560 --> 00:29:30,080
Speaker 1: casinos and real estate. And most importantly, he is also

422
00:29:30,200 --> 00:29:34,560
Speaker 1: the director of something called Electrogas, a company which built

423
00:29:34,800 --> 00:29:37,719
Speaker 1: and runs a brand new power station for the whole country.

424
00:29:38,800 --> 00:29:43,160
Speaker 1: And here's where the connections get interesting. Joseph mouscat Keach

425
00:29:43,240 --> 00:29:47,600
Speaker 1: Cambri and Conrad Mitzi's government have locked Maltese consumers into

426
00:29:47,640 --> 00:29:52,400
Speaker 1: buying electricity from the Electrogas power station, a decision which

427
00:29:52,400 --> 00:29:56,320
Speaker 1: is making alleged mastermind as director of electro Gas a

428
00:29:56,400 --> 00:30:01,440
Speaker 1: lot of money. Moscat, Mitzi, Schambri. They all said that

429
00:30:01,520 --> 00:30:04,280
Speaker 1: the new power station energy deal was fixed for the

430
00:30:04,320 --> 00:30:08,720
Speaker 1: benefit of the Maltese people and for Malta's future, that's

431
00:30:08,760 --> 00:30:11,480
Speaker 1: what they said. But it's a deal which some analysts

432
00:30:11,600 --> 00:30:15,680
Speaker 1: say costs ordinary Maltese people like me a lot of

433
00:30:15,800 --> 00:30:19,880
Speaker 1: money in increased bills. We are paying a private monopoly,

434
00:30:20,040 --> 00:30:23,160
Speaker 1: as some analysts put it, hand over fist, just to

435
00:30:23,240 --> 00:30:26,920
Speaker 1: turn the lights on. And now The Times of Malta,

436
00:30:27,240 --> 00:30:30,600
Speaker 1: Reuters and the Deafney Project are able to reveal that

437
00:30:30,800 --> 00:30:34,760
Speaker 1: Cambri and MIDSI were also expecting to receive huge private

438
00:30:34,880 --> 00:30:38,480
Speaker 1: payments to their secret Panama companies from the director of

439
00:30:38,640 --> 00:30:41,680
Speaker 1: this same power station company, that they've signed a deal

440
00:30:41,760 --> 00:30:46,040
Speaker 1: with what you might call, if you're being nice, a

441
00:30:46,240 --> 00:30:50,480
Speaker 1: serious conflict of interest when approving the project. Scambri and

442
00:30:50,560 --> 00:30:52,880
Speaker 1: MIDSI still deny all wrongdoing.

443
00:30:56,320 --> 00:31:00,440
Speaker 3: The director of the electro Gas power Station Company is

444
00:31:00,520 --> 00:31:04,280
Speaker 3: the same man we have been calling mister alleged Mastermind

445
00:31:04,320 --> 00:31:07,320
Speaker 3: in this series up till now. He's a man who

446
00:31:07,400 --> 00:31:11,440
Speaker 3: loves to gamble and whose father's lucky number at roulette

447
00:31:12,360 --> 00:31:16,760
Speaker 3: was seventeen black. Not all gamblers turn out to be lucky.

448
00:31:18,320 --> 00:31:20,560
Speaker 3: And this is the same man who in twenty seventeen

449
00:31:21,040 --> 00:31:24,560
Speaker 3: stood to lose everything if Daphne Carojuana Galicia lived long

450
00:31:24,680 --> 00:31:28,800
Speaker 3: enough to complete her investigation of seventeen Black and connected

451
00:31:28,920 --> 00:31:33,720
Speaker 3: him and his projects to Malta's corruption scandals, and in

452
00:31:33,800 --> 00:31:38,360
Speaker 3: fact she became remarkably close to exposing the truth.

453
00:31:38,800 --> 00:31:41,400
Speaker 1: We now know that a whistleblower had passed Daphne a

454
00:31:41,560 --> 00:31:45,440
Speaker 1: huge strove of league documents from within Electrogas, documents that

455
00:31:45,480 --> 00:31:48,160
Speaker 1: had the potential to reveal the full extent of the

456
00:31:48,200 --> 00:31:52,240
Speaker 1: corruption involved in the company's dealings with government and the

457
00:31:52,320 --> 00:31:55,920
Speaker 1: poor value it was actually offering the Maltese people. Daphnie

458
00:31:56,040 --> 00:31:58,960
Speaker 1: was working on this strove with her son Metew when

459
00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:03,040
Speaker 1: she was killed, and she never published her findings, but

460
00:32:03,160 --> 00:32:05,520
Speaker 1: there were hints in her blog posts that she was

461
00:32:05,640 --> 00:32:09,120
Speaker 1: close to the truth. Buried deep in the comment section

462
00:32:09,400 --> 00:32:13,240
Speaker 1: to that first mysterious seventeen Black blog post by Daphne

463
00:32:13,840 --> 00:32:17,440
Speaker 1: is a short conversation between two of Daphne's readers. This

464
00:32:17,680 --> 00:32:21,000
Speaker 1: was normal, The comment section was always lively on Dafany's blog.

465
00:32:21,560 --> 00:32:23,800
Speaker 1: Today we can't know everything that was said because one

466
00:32:23,840 --> 00:32:28,120
Speaker 1: of the commentators has since deleted his or her remarks, wisely,

467
00:32:28,200 --> 00:32:32,080
Speaker 1: perhaps for their own safety. But Deaphne was intrigued by

468
00:32:32,120 --> 00:32:35,200
Speaker 1: what the commenters had written about her post, and decided

469
00:32:35,200 --> 00:32:39,080
Speaker 1: to reply herself, thanking them for a useful idea. Her

470
00:32:39,160 --> 00:32:41,880
Speaker 1: reply marks what I believe to be the only time

471
00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:45,600
Speaker 1: she mentioned mister alleged Mastermind by name, and she connects

472
00:32:45,680 --> 00:32:50,360
Speaker 1: him with what she sarcastically calls Malta's magic New corruption

473
00:32:50,560 --> 00:32:55,400
Speaker 1: power station. Is just two sentences long, but it's all there.

474
00:32:56,680 --> 00:33:01,800
Speaker 1: Alleged mastermind's real name and an accusation of corruption involving

475
00:33:01,880 --> 00:33:02,640
Speaker 1: the electro Gas.

476
00:33:02,640 --> 00:33:09,480
Speaker 2: Power station, a couple of the owners of their magic

477
00:33:09,640 --> 00:33:13,760
Speaker 2: new corruption power station, and it's Jorgan Fenek. So thanks

478
00:33:13,800 --> 00:33:15,240
Speaker 2: for this, because it really figures.

479
00:33:16,480 --> 00:33:22,120
Speaker 3: His name is Jorgen Fenek, director of Electra Gas, owner

480
00:33:22,520 --> 00:33:28,000
Speaker 3: of seventeen Black, and the alleged mastermind of Japhne's murder.

481
00:33:32,280 --> 00:33:36,000
Speaker 1: Her decision to include that name in this comment, probably

482
00:33:36,040 --> 00:33:39,200
Speaker 1: written without a second thought, might be what signed her

483
00:33:39,280 --> 00:33:43,400
Speaker 1: death warrant. It's just a few weeks later that prosecutors

484
00:33:43,480 --> 00:33:51,200
Speaker 1: believe Jorgan Fennec, mister alleged Mastermind, orders her assassination. But

485
00:33:51,360 --> 00:33:54,400
Speaker 1: even as he becomes an official suspect in Daphne's murder,

486
00:33:55,360 --> 00:33:58,040
Speaker 1: mister Fennec still has a few more roles of the

487
00:33:58,120 --> 00:34:11,480
Speaker 1: dice to play. That's Next. Crooks Everywhere is a production

488
00:34:11,640 --> 00:34:16,360
Speaker 1: of iHeart Podcasts, Topic Studios and Vespucci. It's reported and

489
00:34:16,480 --> 00:34:20,800
Speaker 1: hosted by me Manuel Delia and John Sweeney. The senior

490
00:34:20,840 --> 00:34:25,640
Speaker 1: producer is Leo Hornack. The producer is Maddie Hickish krish

491
00:34:25,680 --> 00:34:29,359
Speaker 1: Denesh Kumar is the assistant producer. The story editors are

492
00:34:29,440 --> 00:34:34,040
Speaker 1: Emma Federill, Matt Willis, and Philippa Geering. The managing producers

493
00:34:34,080 --> 00:34:37,560
Speaker 1: are Thomas Curry and Rachel Byrne. The voice of daf

494
00:34:37,640 --> 00:34:41,520
Speaker 1: Nick Rwana Galizia is played by Ciena Miller, acting direction

495
00:34:41,680 --> 00:34:45,920
Speaker 1: by Christopher Houten Maltese voices by Mikhaiel basma Jan and

496
00:34:46,040 --> 00:34:50,160
Speaker 1: Pierre staff Rach. The executive producers are Johnny Galvin and

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00:34:50,320 --> 00:34:55,480
Speaker 1: Daniel Turkean at Vespucci, Christi Gressman at Topic Studios, Katina

498
00:34:55,560 --> 00:34:59,560
Speaker 1: Norvell and Niki Etoor at iHeart Podcasts, and Ciena Miller

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00:35:00,239 --> 00:35:04,240
Speaker 1: Marketing lead as David Wassermann. Audio recording by Tom Berry

500
00:35:04,360 --> 00:35:08,040
Speaker 1: at Wardoor Studios. Audio mix and sound design by Joel Cox.

501
00:35:08,760 --> 00:35:13,960
Speaker 1: Special thanks to Andrew Watchcardona, Alessandra di Crespo, Eddie Isles,

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00:35:14,160 --> 00:35:15,640
Speaker 1: and Andrew Carvana Galizia,