WEBVTT - Episode 5: The Middleman 0:00:01.400 --> 0:00:05.520 I can't explain Maltese culture. This is not a democratic place. 0:00:05.600 --> 0:00:09.440 There is no democratic spirit. People think only in terms 0:00:09.480 --> 0:00:13.880 of surviving and keeping the Hakem the Master off their backs. 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:17.000 We have moved from a good house built on solid 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:25.880 rock foundations to a skyscraper built on sand. 0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:33.919 It's April twenty seventeen, six months before Daphnese murder, a 0:00:33.960 --> 0:00:37.760 pleasant warm day on the Key Side in Imcida, a 0:00:37.840 --> 0:00:40.520 harbor town just next to Malta's capital of the letter. 0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:44.199 This is a place built for relaxation and luxury. The 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:47.680 water is filled with beautiful and expensive yachts popping gently 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:52.400 in this well. Right now is just before noon, and 0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:55.360 a few pedestrians about are mostly middle aged joggers or 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:59.120 restaurant workers on a smoke break. But one man is 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:04.200 here on Celia's business. Mister Middleman, Melvin Toma has an 0:01:04.240 --> 0:01:07.880 appointment as definitely would say he's keen to keep the 0:01:07.959 --> 0:01:14.240 Hearkem the Master off his back. From iHeart Podcasts, Topic 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:18.920 Studios and Vespucci. I'm Manuel Delia and I'm John Sweeney 0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:23.319 and this is Crooks Everywhere, Episode five. The middle Man. 0:01:33.520 --> 0:01:36.000 The agreement is to meet here at the Busybe Cafe, 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:38.920 a much loved place that's been around for decades. 0:01:38.840 --> 0:01:41.960 And the inside of the busy Bee is also typical 0:01:42.040 --> 0:01:46.080 of an old Maltese seafront cafe. Small, with the tables 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:49.160 close together, may be not ideal for the kind of 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:53.280 private conversation that Melvin the Middleman needs to have today. 0:01:54.120 --> 0:01:57.280 Even so, it's too late for him to back out now, 0:01:57.800 --> 0:01:58.800 even if he were. 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:02.400 Considering it and waiting for Melvin. At a table at 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:04.880 the back end of the busy Bee is a lanky 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:08.640 man in his fifties, thinning hair, nursing a soft drink, 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:13.040 Alfred de Bean de Georgio, the brother of Chinese George 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:13.880 de Georgio. 0:02:14.280 --> 0:02:17.760 The following is once again a reconstruction of events described 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:21.119 in court room testimony by one of those present. We've 0:02:21.160 --> 0:02:25.520 dramatized the evidence and provided color in places without changing 0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:28.079 any of the material facts or allegations. 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:34.000 On this day, Alfred de Bean has already been sitting 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:37.400 here for a few minutes. Around the corner, the third 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:41.240 member of the team, Vincent de kof Moscat, is waiting 0:02:41.280 --> 0:02:45.560 in a car acting as chauffeur. Melvin the Middleman leans 0:02:45.600 --> 0:02:50.000 across the table and they shake hands wherey small talk follows. 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:55.120 If Malta's a small place where everyone knows everyone, the 0:02:55.160 --> 0:02:59.720 world of Maltese organized crime is even smaller. Both men 0:02:59.800 --> 0:03:02.120 know that if you cross someone, it's not hard for 0:03:02.160 --> 0:03:05.360 them to find you. And these two men already go 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:09.520 back years. They aren't close, but Melvin used to rent 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:11.560 out an apartment in the town of Mosta to the 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:16.160 Georgia Brothers. Dangerous men to have as tenants, maybe, but 0:03:16.280 --> 0:03:19.639 also maybe useful connections to develop. 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:24.040 Especially if you might need someone to be dealt. 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:27.720 With for a certain kind of job. In Malta. The 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:31.440 Georgia Brothers are believed to be the real professionals, so 0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:33.760 much so that Melvin, the middleman, has already been told 0:03:33.840 --> 0:03:37.280 to seek out the Brothers specifically for this particular task. 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:45.440 According to courtroom testimony, that task assassinating Malta's most famous journalist. 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:47.840 Pully Cavelli. 0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:51.520 Espresso please thank you coffee is ordered and the real 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:53.120 discussion begins Mada. 0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:57.320 As middleman, Melvin is acting on behalf of this boss, 0:03:57.880 --> 0:04:00.920 one of the most powerful men in malt We will 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:05.840 call him mister alleged Mastermind, and we are calling him 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:10.200 that because he's been indicted for arranging Daphne's murder, but 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:17.040 is currently awaiting trial. It seems that mister alleged Mastermind 0:04:17.680 --> 0:04:23.400 has been finding Daphne's writing extremely inconvenient recently, and he's 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:28.240 concerned about what she might publish next. According to secretly 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:32.000 tape recordings heard in court, he is particularly concerned about 0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:36.360 what she might publish about corruption and government links to business. 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:40.919 So, according to Melvin, mister alleged Mastermind asked him to 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:43.640 get in touch with the the Georgia Brothers to resolve 0:04:43.680 --> 0:04:48.080 the situation. As a first step, Melvin the Middleman has 0:04:48.080 --> 0:04:51.159 already paid a visit to the Potato Shack, the warehouse 0:04:51.200 --> 0:04:53.720 that the Jorjo Brothers and Vincent de Koff use as 0:04:53.720 --> 0:04:56.960 an office. On that visit, Melvin let it be known 0:04:57.200 --> 0:04:59.799 that someone was willing to pay to have Dafne permanently 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:04.240 a eliminated that Georgios signaled their possible interest and suggested 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:06.880 a further meeting here at the busy Bee. 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:10.720 And now Alfred the Bean is ready to talk in 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:12.200 more detail. 0:05:13.800 --> 0:05:17.440 The Bean explains that the task is possible, but only 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:22.120 for the right price. Melvin signals that he expected this. 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:26.720 Alfred the Bean doesn't know who Melvin the middle Man 0:05:26.760 --> 0:05:31.800 is working for, and naturally he doesn't ask. Also, he 0:05:31.880 --> 0:05:35.800 doesn't fully appreciate who daphnely is, her influence in importance 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:39.760 in Maltes's politics, or the international impact her death will 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:43.120 have on their cottage industry of killing people on the island. 0:05:43.680 --> 0:05:46.400 In fact, crucially neither of them do. 0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:51.159 Both Alfred de Bean and Melvin the Middleman sit on 0:05:51.160 --> 0:05:54.520 one side of Malta's deep cultural divide, part of the 0:05:54.560 --> 0:05:58.760 mainly Maulti speaking working class world where English language political 0:05:58.800 --> 0:06:01.799 blogs are not a big concerned. Although did the Georgis 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:05.360 have connections to politicians like Chris Cardona, they do not 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:09.120 appear to follow politics too closely. But even so, a 0:06:09.120 --> 0:06:12.960 contract on someone outside the criminal underworld must be a 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:17.480 major undertaking. It can't come cheap, As the Bean explains, 0:06:18.160 --> 0:06:22.599 the Bean is blunt. The price of Daphne's life will 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:26.240 be miasenev one hundred and fifty thousand euros about one 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:29.400 hundred sixty thousand dollars Chinese. 0:06:29.440 --> 0:06:31.840 George will later claim that it was easy for him 0:06:31.839 --> 0:06:34.560 and his brother to settle on these numbers. They simply 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:37.680 reuse the figures they had given the last time. Someone 0:06:37.720 --> 0:06:41.880 had asked them to kill Daphne. That earlier murder plot 0:06:41.920 --> 0:06:44.400 had fizzled out before an attempt could be made on 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:52.640 her lifetor. 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:55.400 Multice for I'll check with someone, and with that, Melvin 0:06:55.400 --> 0:06:57.840 the Middleman makes it clear he understands the terms of 0:06:57.880 --> 0:07:01.839 the deal. He finishes his and thanks Alfred de Bean 0:07:01.920 --> 0:07:05.800 for his time. When the response from his boss comes, 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:09.040 Daphne's death warrant will have been signed. 0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:23.920 So how do you become a middleman and a murder plot? 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:26.560 Why would you involve yourself in a crime on behalf 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:29.400 of someone else when you don't even really know who 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:32.559 the victim is or stand to benefit from their death? 0:07:33.160 --> 0:07:36.240 What's in it the Melvin the Middleman. 0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:42.200 So far as we can tell, he never asked for 0:07:42.240 --> 0:07:45.240 any payment for his work enabling the plot, although he 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:48.560 did receive some reward. Definitely never wrote about the De 0:07:48.640 --> 0:07:52.440 Georgia brothers or Melvin the Middleman specifically, but she did 0:07:52.480 --> 0:07:54.920 write a lot about the culture that lets organized crime 0:07:54.920 --> 0:07:59.240 and corruption thrive in Malta, the kind of networks and 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:02.320 relationships that also underpinned the plot to kill her. 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:06.960 January twenty ninth, twenty fifteen. The fabric of Maltese society 0:08:07.160 --> 0:08:11.080 is your typical Southern Mediterranean situation in which it's the 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:14.160 family versus everybody and everything else. 0:08:15.440 --> 0:08:18.640 And this was a recurring theme for Deafnie, that Malta 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:21.960 is not a society of laws and moral rules, but 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:24.840 instead the culture of networks of power and loyalty. 0:08:25.160 --> 0:08:29.040 There is no concept of society and hence absolutely no 0:08:29.160 --> 0:08:32.320 civic sense. Maltese people do not care about each other. 0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:36.400 They care about themselves first and foremost, and their immediate 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:37.600 family a close second. 0:08:40.559 --> 0:08:43.160 And how does loyalty to family get us through a 0:08:43.240 --> 0:08:43.920 murder plot? 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:47.280 Definitely wrote about that too. For her, Maltese culture was 0:08:47.320 --> 0:08:51.920 based on what you called a moral feminism. It's a 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:55.520 slightly academic term, but then that was sometimes Deafhnie's style. 0:08:56.520 --> 0:08:59.320 A moral feminalism has its own answer to the question 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:02.280 what's the right thing to do. It's not what's best 0:09:02.320 --> 0:09:05.640 for everyone, or even what's best for most people. Right 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:09.199 or wrong, is about what's best for my family, because 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:11.560 if it's good for my family, I'm likely to be 0:09:11.600 --> 0:09:12.559 better off as well. 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:19.319 March twenty fifth, twenty thirteen. Those who wish to understand 0:09:19.360 --> 0:09:22.520 how Maltese society functions have no choice, but to read 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:25.800 up on a moral famiism. A moral famialism is the 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:28.960 reason people in Malta use their vote as currency and 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:31.040 do not think in terms of the common good or 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:34.319 choosing the right government, but in terms of s fighting 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:38.440 slash rewarding getting slash preventing others from getting. It is 0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:41.360 not a trend, but the ancient roots of Maltese society, 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:44.560 not even money or EU membership, have been able to 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:48.080 eradicate it. This is where you have the split between 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:49.200 the two Maltas. 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:53.280 The two Maltas. That's Snaphanie's name for the cultural divide 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:57.080 between a predominantly English speaking, more middle class group and 0:09:57.120 --> 0:10:00.920 the more working class Maltese speaking wider population. 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:04.040 Amorral feminism can also mean that if you are a 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:08.199 person without power or connections, you will need a godfather 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:12.040 to get ahead, someone more powerful than you who can 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:15.480 help you climb the leader, someone to act as family. 0:10:17.200 --> 0:10:21.360 Melvin Tooma wasn't an known person before all this came 0:10:21.360 --> 0:10:21.679 to light. 0:10:21.920 --> 0:10:25.200 Kert Sansne is executive editor of Monta Today, one of 0:10:25.240 --> 0:10:28.679 the main English language newspapers in Malta, and someone who 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:31.440 has covered the investigation into Deafnie's murder and depth. 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:35.559 I mean, he might have had, you know, some court records, 0:10:35.600 --> 0:10:39.440 but he wasn't the type you know the name crops 0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:42.880 up and is ah okay, he's that type of person. 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:45.920 In contrast to men like Alfred de Bean or Chinese George, 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:49.400 for example, Melvin the Middleman flew more under the radar 0:10:49.440 --> 0:10:53.840 with law enforcement, but his backstory and the spider web 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:56.600 of criminal loyalty and obligation he was caught up in 0:10:57.240 --> 0:10:59.800 explains how he came to be involved in Deafnie's killing. 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:04.280 So far, we know that Melvin Town basically was a 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:08.800 taxi driver. He used to be given sort of preferential 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:15.000 taxi stance treatment outside the Hilton Hotel in Saint Julian's 0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:15.719 From what. 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:18.960 Has been reported, we also know that Melvin didn't grow 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:22.440 up in luxury or privilege. He certainly wasn't plugged into 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:25.040 Daphnese blog and the world it served. 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:27.679 But that didn't mean that he wasn't a sevy operator 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:33.040 or fiercely intelligent. Melvin the Middleman is a native of 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:36.280 birger Khana, the same residential district in the center of 0:11:36.360 --> 0:11:40.320 Malta where the lawyer Carmel Kirkopp was shot dead. We 0:11:40.400 --> 0:11:42.760 know that his father died when he was just a teenager, 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:45.360 a tragedy which may have forced him to grow up 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:49.920 even faster. And if Amorial Famininism is a defining force 0:11:49.960 --> 0:11:53.880 in Maltese culture, an ambitious teenager like Melvin might have 0:11:54.040 --> 0:11:57.240 known he needed to look for somewhere and someone to 0:11:57.320 --> 0:12:07.280 pledge his loyalty to agreements. 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:08.560 What's coming on here? 0:12:11.000 --> 0:12:13.080 This is old video footage of the Motor Race Club. 0:12:13.360 --> 0:12:16.720 It's the Club President's Cup Final nineteen ninety three, when 0:12:16.800 --> 0:12:20.600 Melvin would have been a teenager. One of the nicer 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:24.480 legacies of British colonialism, apart from red phone boxes and 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:27.719 the liking for greasy breakfasts, the Empire also left as 0:12:27.720 --> 0:12:28.959 a culture of horse racing. 0:12:33.720 --> 0:12:36.840 I'm looking at grainy TV pictures of traps going around 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:40.400 in type formation. Each ride on a sort of chariot 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:43.240 behind his horse lower. 0:12:43.840 --> 0:12:48.679 Those chariots are called three can light two wheeled cards 0:12:48.720 --> 0:12:52.880 bearing a driver and his whip. For fans, these races matter. 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:55.280 A lot of money changes hands. 0:12:55.720 --> 0:12:58.400 In the footage. It looks like a close race on 0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:02.080 that day in the nineteen ninety Some middle class martes 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:04.920 are snobbish about the sport. It's seen by them as 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:09.079 almost embarrassing, perhaps because, in contrast with its high society 0:13:09.120 --> 0:13:12.920 British origins, horse racing and mortar has evolved into a 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:16.679 distinctly working class activity. 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:25.440 As a young guy, Melvin the Middleman found his calling 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:29.679 at the races, working as a groom, running gurians, making connections, 0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:33.280 and learning how the bookkeeping and gambling business works. 0:13:33.600 --> 0:13:36.840 That needs skills how to calculate odds, figure out payouts, 0:13:36.880 --> 0:13:40.439 balance profit and loss. But also it needs the emotional 0:13:40.520 --> 0:13:44.280 intelligence to understand the punters, the ability to tempt them 0:13:44.280 --> 0:13:48.080 into another flutter, just one more bet, to recover their losses, 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:51.200 to persuade them to chase a win that is just 0:13:51.320 --> 0:13:52.160 around the corner. 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:55.280 Absolutely, and Melvin seems to have been good at it. 0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:58.320 Who was at home a deras trek, connected and trusted 0:14:02.640 --> 0:14:04.920 By the time, Melvin the Middleman was a young man 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:08.320 who was running his own black market betting business, taking 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:11.840 bets in exchange for a commission, and allegedly, on at 0:14:11.960 --> 0:14:14.839 least one occasion, offering loans to men who wanted to 0:14:14.920 --> 0:14:17.680 keep gambling but had already spent all their money. 0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:21.560 And of course those useful extra loans came with interest. 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:25.000 One of his first brushes with the low came from this. 0:14:25.320 --> 0:14:27.680 When he was twenty five, the case was brought against 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:31.480 him for loan sharking, charging extortion's interest on money lent 0:14:31.560 --> 0:14:35.240 for gambling. The court heard how he lent one punter 0:14:35.360 --> 0:14:39.560 the equivalents of about eight two hundred dollars in today's money. 0:14:40.440 --> 0:14:44.320 These loans were for betting on the master horse races. 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:47.440 The punter paid that all back a few days later, 0:14:48.040 --> 0:14:52.240 plus an extra fifty percent his interest. Everything purely a 0:14:52.320 --> 0:14:55.680 verbal agreement, but when the borrower wasn't able to pay 0:14:55.760 --> 0:15:01.200 up on later loans, Melvin the Middleman allegedly became unhappy. 0:15:03.280 --> 0:15:06.040 The court case records the complaints of frets made against 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:08.840 the borrower and his wife as they turned to other 0:15:08.960 --> 0:15:12.120 loan sharks in order to pay him off. Melvin the 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:16.040 Middleman was acquitted of all charges. As he was acquitted, 0:15:16.440 --> 0:15:20.320 it would be unfair to draw any conclusion right. 0:15:24.000 --> 0:15:26.560 At some point, it seems, Melvin the Middenman began to 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:29.960 think bigger, to look beyond the race track. He started 0:15:30.000 --> 0:15:32.840 to operate a national black market lottery based on the 0:15:32.880 --> 0:15:35.840 numbers from the official lottery, but with its own tickets 0:15:35.880 --> 0:15:38.880 and its own prizes, and again he was good at it. 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:42.280 Press reports quote sources saying he was known for paying 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:46.120 up promptly when customers won. When he was eventually arrested 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:49.400 in connection with Daphanie's murder, police found the equivalent of 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:54.080 two point two million dollars in cash in his home. Still, 0:15:54.120 --> 0:15:57.960 he always maintained his other official, legitimate business, driving a 0:15:58.000 --> 0:16:01.200 cab with a stand at the luxury Hilton Hotel. And 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:05.000 this might be where the idea of loyalty, connections and 0:16:05.080 --> 0:16:06.920 the godfather comes in again. 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:14.560 If you want to run a successful black market gambling business, 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:18.680 eventually you will start to need connections, relationships with people 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:23.480 further up the food chain, those with real power, and 0:16:23.520 --> 0:16:26.080 Melvin the middleman seems to have been astute here too. 0:16:26.840 --> 0:16:29.680 In his early days at the racetrack, he starts running 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:33.200 errands for a powerful, rich family who also keep horses 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:37.280 at the track. At first, he takes bets for them 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:39.800 as part of his business. It's a natural way in 0:16:39.960 --> 0:16:43.920 the men of the family already like gambling. Apparently, everyone 0:16:44.000 --> 0:16:47.000 knows that the family patriarch has a lucky number at 0:16:47.040 --> 0:16:50.120 Roulette seventeen. 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:56.560 Black Later, the relationship between him and this family grows 0:16:56.600 --> 0:17:01.440 into something more personal and more subservient. He brings them 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:05.480 gifts of rabbits for their kitchen, a Maltese delicacy, and 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:08.440 drops off lows of bread for them to eat, making 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:12.600 himself useful and establishing that he deserves a place within 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:16.520 the circle of trust and loyalty under the rules of 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:23.320 amoral feminism. The family patriarch's son is close to Melvin 0:17:23.359 --> 0:17:27.000 the Middleman in age, a young man who shares Melvin's 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:30.639 love of the racetrack, but comes from a different world 0:17:31.119 --> 0:17:35.720 of wealth, luxury, and connections. Someone who is going places. 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:39.280 Melvin is reported to have thought that this young man, 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:44.560 not his equal, but also not quite his boss, knew. 0:17:44.359 --> 0:17:47.240 Everyone, and this young man will grow up to become 0:17:47.720 --> 0:17:56.160 our mister alleged mastermind. Melvin the middle Man will later 0:17:56.240 --> 0:17:59.280 testify that when he needed help with something that required 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:03.040 government content, he would pass the request through his well 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:07.120 connected old friend. The man helps in other important ways too. 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:09.760 He's probably the one who arranges for Melvin to be 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:13.120 allowed to work the taxi stand outside the Hilton Hotel, 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:15.040 a lucrative spot. 0:18:15.200 --> 0:18:19.480 And it's not a one sided relationship for mister alleged Mastermind. 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:22.359 Melvin the Middleman is useful as well. We know that 0:18:22.400 --> 0:18:25.199 at various times he acts as a personal chauffeur for 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:31.160 Alleged Mastermind, sometimes on deeply personal business. When the patriarch 0:18:31.160 --> 0:18:34.040 of the family dies, it's Melvin who was trusted with 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:38.480 driving Alleged Mastermind to the funeral. At some point, it 0:18:38.480 --> 0:18:42.119 seems Melvin the Middleman and mister Alleged Mastermind even go 0:18:42.200 --> 0:18:46.200 on a gambling holiday together to France, with Alleged Mastermind 0:18:46.200 --> 0:18:49.080 paying for everything. So this also seems to have been 0:18:49.119 --> 0:18:55.879 a close trusting relationship. As amoral feminism demands, and Melvin 0:18:55.880 --> 0:18:59.720 the Middleman Tuma might be useful to mister Alleged Mastermind 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:04.199 for an another reason. Melvin has connections to the underworld, 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:08.639 connections to men like the de Giorgio brothers, Connections that 0:19:08.720 --> 0:19:10.560 his powerful friend might need. 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:25.640 One day, in April twenty seventeen, Melvin the Middleman gets 0:19:25.640 --> 0:19:29.520 a call from mister Alleged Mastermind is a request to 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:33.720 meet face to face to talk. Melvin doesn't hesitate. By 0:19:33.720 --> 0:19:36.440 this time, the Labor government of Joseph Muscat has been 0:19:36.440 --> 0:19:39.680 in power for four years. A general election has been 0:19:39.720 --> 0:19:43.360 called early and is due in a few weeks. Daphne 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:47.200 is now one of the government's most outspoken and effective critics. 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:52.080 Her stories and government corruption are dominating politics. Prime Minister 0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:55.159 Joseph Muscat even claims that he had to call the 0:19:55.160 --> 0:19:59.640 elections to put to rest her accusations of wrongdoing. But 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:04.720 miss through alleged mastermind isn't calling a meeting to discuss politics. 0:20:05.119 --> 0:20:07.480 He asked Melvin the Middleman to meet him outside a 0:20:07.520 --> 0:20:11.240 Thai restaurant near the Hilton Hotel by the Marina. 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:15.240 It was a restaurant by the name of Blue Elephant. 0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:18.840 Jason Atza Pardi the lawyer for Dafinie family. 0:20:18.680 --> 0:20:23.320 And over there he spoke with Melvin Toma, asking him 0:20:23.640 --> 0:20:27.760 how he could get in touch with a particular criminal, 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:32.720 one of Malta's foremost underworld criminals, because he needed to 0:20:32.760 --> 0:20:33.679 get rid of someone. 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:38.560 That someone is definite. According to court testimony given by 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:43.080 Melvin the Middleman, the request is as follows, do you 0:20:43.160 --> 0:20:47.720 know Chinese George because I need him I want to 0:20:47.800 --> 0:20:57.160 kill Dafnicia. There's no room for confusion. Melvin is being 0:20:57.200 --> 0:21:01.560 recruited as the middleman in a conspiracy to commit murder and. 0:21:01.520 --> 0:21:04.680 For me, this is one of the most depressing moments 0:21:04.760 --> 0:21:08.919 in the whole story. Melvin the Middleman's criminal activity, so 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:12.919 far as we know, is black market bookmaking, working the 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:18.040 dark side of gambling, maybe some loan sharking, all illegal, 0:21:18.720 --> 0:21:21.960 but he's not a killer. But at that moment, by 0:21:21.960 --> 0:21:25.440 the Blue Elephant is being asked to organize the murder 0:21:25.720 --> 0:21:30.240 of an innocent woman. By any normal moral compass, it's 0:21:30.280 --> 0:21:35.879 straightforwardly evil. It's also not even in his financial self interest. 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:40.479 There isn't a fee offered to him, and so Melvin 0:21:40.520 --> 0:21:43.320 the Middleman does have an opportunity here. In theory, he 0:21:43.359 --> 0:21:45.320 could do the right thing and back out. 0:21:45.440 --> 0:21:48.640 But that's not what it does. In fact, he's all in. 0:21:49.560 --> 0:21:54.320 And to understand why, I think Definie's on analysis is useful. 0:21:54.359 --> 0:21:58.919 Once again, however evil this plan is, and however risky 0:21:58.960 --> 0:22:03.760 it is, for Melvin Dedman, under the rules of AMORL feminism, 0:22:04.320 --> 0:22:08.080 the only ethical value that he must honor is loyalty. 0:22:08.840 --> 0:22:12.639 Loyalty to the family and Melvin the Middleman's years of 0:22:12.720 --> 0:22:16.480 history with the alleged Mastermind, the gifts, the favors, the 0:22:16.560 --> 0:22:22.359 odd jobs, make alleged Mastermind's family Melvin's own. As Dephney said, 0:22:23.040 --> 0:22:34.960 it's the family versus everybody and everything else. But once more, 0:22:35.080 --> 0:22:38.439 this is just my take. What we do know is 0:22:38.480 --> 0:22:41.360 that when Melvin the Middleman Toma is asked to help 0:22:41.400 --> 0:22:43.720 kill Dephanie, he does not hesitate. 0:22:44.000 --> 0:22:50.800 Melvin Toma got going and contacted the Georgios, and thereafter 0:22:51.119 --> 0:22:55.640 a series of contacts starts until one fine day they 0:22:55.760 --> 0:23:00.639 meet in a cafeteria in the small town of Incida, 0:23:01.560 --> 0:23:05.600 where the details of the commissioning of the murder to 0:23:05.640 --> 0:23:12.760 take place were given, the price requested, and subsequently Melvin Toma, 0:23:13.359 --> 0:23:16.840 of course, each time going back to the Mastermind. 0:23:16.600 --> 0:23:19.119 The same cafe meeting by the key side that this 0:23:19.200 --> 0:23:22.280 episode started with. In the weeks that follow that meeting, 0:23:22.720 --> 0:23:27.919 Melvin's enabling role as middleman becomes crucial, varying information and 0:23:28.040 --> 0:23:33.280 instructions between the assassins and his powerful friend. After the 0:23:33.280 --> 0:23:36.439 busy Bee meeting, he relays the price that Alfred the 0:23:36.480 --> 0:23:40.280 Bean has quoted one hundred and fifty thousand euros, and 0:23:40.400 --> 0:23:44.080 mister alleged Mastermind signs off on it. It is Melvin 0:23:44.080 --> 0:23:47.800 the Middleman who then informs the killers that preparations for 0:23:47.880 --> 0:23:51.800 the murder can begin. Later, it is Melvin the Middleman 0:23:52.080 --> 0:23:55.399 who is tasked with ordering the murder team to move faster. 0:23:56.440 --> 0:24:01.119 Mister alleged Mastermind specifically tells him to pass on a 0:24:01.240 --> 0:24:05.320 chilling message, hurry up and kill her. 0:24:09.560 --> 0:24:13.800 Throughout, Melvin the Middleman is providing a crucial service, a 0:24:13.880 --> 0:24:18.159 layer of insulation and distance between mister alleged Mastermind and 0:24:18.240 --> 0:24:21.399 the actual killers who will murder Dafny. Thanks to Melvin 0:24:21.400 --> 0:24:24.520 the Middleman, Daphnee killers do not know who they are 0:24:24.600 --> 0:24:25.760 ultimately working for. 0:24:29.080 --> 0:24:32.480 Soon after the killing is agreed and the preparations have begun, 0:24:32.960 --> 0:24:35.720 he gets a call from mister alleged Mastermind, who says 0:24:35.720 --> 0:24:39.040 that someone is about to get in touch an important official. 0:24:41.480 --> 0:24:43.879 When he asks what the call will be about, mister 0:24:43.920 --> 0:24:48.080 alleged Mastermind declines to discuss it on the phone. Soon after, 0:24:48.440 --> 0:24:52.800 the official from the government does call him. It's Sandro Kraus, 0:24:53.160 --> 0:24:55.760 the mayor of the town of Rabbits and whose other 0:24:55.880 --> 0:24:58.480 job is head of customer Care at the office of 0:24:58.520 --> 0:25:02.680 the Prime Minister, a powerful man at the center of government, 0:25:03.040 --> 0:25:07.400 close to the leadership of the whole country, and mister 0:25:07.480 --> 0:25:11.800 Kraus invites Melvin for a personal appointment at Castile Moult's 0:25:11.840 --> 0:25:17.200 central government offices. Melvin the middleman isn't the kind of 0:25:17.240 --> 0:25:22.480 guy who's comfortable in fancy government officers. On the day 0:25:22.560 --> 0:25:26.080 of the appointment, he calls mister alleged Mastermind for advice 0:25:26.200 --> 0:25:29.200 on which door to enter by. When he does figure 0:25:29.240 --> 0:25:33.080 that out, there's another surprise. He's met on the steps 0:25:33.400 --> 0:25:37.320 by an even more important man, Keith Skembrie, the Prime 0:25:37.320 --> 0:25:38.800 Minister's chief of staff. 0:25:40.560 --> 0:25:44.280 He's Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's right hand man. They even 0:25:44.320 --> 0:25:47.800 went to school together. It was Skembury who managed the 0:25:47.800 --> 0:25:51.480 election campaign that first got Joseph Mouscat elected in twenty thirteen, 0:25:52.480 --> 0:25:55.760 and as the Prime Minister's chief of staff, he's considered 0:25:55.760 --> 0:25:58.159 by some to be the real power behind the throne 0:25:58.200 --> 0:26:02.240 in Malta. Needless to say, definitely. Karina Galizia isn't a 0:26:02.320 --> 0:26:05.040 fan of mister Scambrie. He's one of the politicians she 0:26:05.119 --> 0:26:08.280 is most famous for attacking, along with the Prime Minister 0:26:08.400 --> 0:26:13.080 and Crescardoona. Daphnely alleged that Schkembrie was at the heart 0:26:13.160 --> 0:26:15.720 of some of the most important corruption scandals in the 0:26:15.760 --> 0:26:19.320 country and was using his political power for a legal profit. 0:26:20.320 --> 0:26:23.280 Scanbury denies it, but we will come to The evidence 0:26:23.320 --> 0:26:27.320 definitely found for that later in this podcast, but for now, 0:26:27.560 --> 0:26:30.119 it's enough to know Keith sch Caambrie is one of 0:26:30.119 --> 0:26:32.520 the most powerful politicians in the country. 0:26:34.200 --> 0:26:38.520