The Critical Angle Project can exclusively report that police superintendent and lawyer Frankie Sammut successfully pursued a court case against the police commissioner’s attempt at restricting officers from providing legal services.
On Monday, judge Anna Felice ordered the revocation of an internal notice issued by police commissioner Angelo Gafa’ in 2020. The legal spat between Sammut and Gafa’ has been ongoing since 2021.
That internal notice effectively functioned as an amendment to a previous one issued in 2018. In that 2018 notice, the police commissioner set out policies meant to regulate what kind of work officers could do outside of their regular duties.
According to court documents seen by this website, the officers were only allowed to provide legal advice and assistance in matters that are purely administrative and disciplinary in nature, draft laws, contracts, and conduct related research, provide consultancy services in matters of a civil nature, and give lectures related to their area of expertise.
Sammut, together with two other police officers, successfully obtained formal permission to provide such services from Gafa’ himself, who chaired a board that assessed each applicant on a case by case basis.
The dispute arose when Gafa’ issued that second internal notice in 2020. Gafa’ informed the corps that “the activity of a legal profession that would present a conflict of interest in the administration of justice” would now be deemed incompatible with police work.
In an utterly bizarre twist in this saga, Gafa’ promoted Sammut from inspector to superintendent midway through the court case in question. To add insult to injury, Sammut had also publicly announced he was wading into the murky world of real estate while the case stalled.
A screenshot from Frankie Sammut’s post announcing his decision to foray into real estate.
After spending four years in court, Sammut convinced the judge to rescind the second internal notice on the grounds that the police commissioner failed to consult with officers who would be affected by the changes made in 2020.
In court, Gafa’ argued that the plaintiff’s legal activity was “in flagrant conflict” with the corps’ interests and that further restrictions to these criteria were warranted by GRECO recommendations.
A legal expert consulted by this website was convinced that the court interpreted the law correctly by annulling the circular and that “the ball is now in the commissioner’s lap.”
The expert argued that the police commissioner’s defence was doomed the minute he decided to allow police officers to provide legal services to begin with.
The possibility of conflict of interest should have been considered obvious from the start – this was also pointed out by the Chamber of Advocates and aditus foundation in comments given to this website way back in 2023.
In particular, both organisations had agreed that the fact that Sammut was working with a golden passports firm while also serving as a senior immigration inspector with the police force at the same time was a glaring conflict of interest.
That initial failure to address this issue, coupled with the commissioner’s additional failure to adequately consult officers who had already started providing legal services, led the court to order the revocation of the circular.
The police commissioner can now choose to appeal the judgement or simply reissue a notice which better adheres to the court’s reasoning on the matter.
A request for comment sent to the police commissioner remained unanswered at publication time. Throughout this website’s two-year investigation about Sammut’s activities, the commissioner has refused to respond to any of our queries.
This website’s longest running investigation
Frankie Sammut is probably one of this website’s most well known subjects.
He was first mentioned in our reporting in connection with disgraced former economy minister Chris Cardona.
In October 2023, we reported how Sammut was serving as the head of legal for IWS Global Ltd, a company that was partially owned by Cardona and his business associate, Matthias Vidergold.
A photo of IWS Group at their stand in Dubai’s citizenship expo in 2023. From left to right:
IWS’ founder and CEO Matthias Vidergold/Saliba, IWS’ regional manager in the Balkans Agnesa Ordanoska, and disgraced former economy minister and co-shareholder Chris Cardona.
This website exposed how IWS Global advertised a wide range of immigration services, flogging everything from passports to citizenship permits to cheap labour imported directly from impoverished countries.
Since then, previously unreported financial documentation filed by the company at the Malta Business Registry (MBR) indicates that the company is maintaining a low profile. Its website was taken down after it briefly went back online in February 2024 – though not without us noticing that Sammut’s bio on the website was removed before the website was taken down again.
IWS Global’s 2021 audited accounts indicate a negligible amount of business activity. In fact, the company which owns the business centre that IWS was previously domiciled in notified the MBR that IWS no longer has a valid office agreement.
Another MBR document also reveals that Chris Cardona resigned from his post as director, judicial representative, and legal representative of IWS in October 2024. Cardona remains a shareholder in the company.
A screenshot of the formal notice filed by the owners of IWS’ previous office space. Source: MBR
A screenshot of the formal notice in which Cardona announced his resignation from the post. Source: MBR
This is part nine of a broader investigation. Click to read: part one | explainer | part two | part three | part four | part five | part six | part seven | part eight