Episode 5: The Middleman

I can't explain Maltese culture. This is not a democratic place. There is no democratic spirit. People think only in terms of surviving and keeping the Hakem the Master off their backs. We have moved from a good house built on solid rock foundations to a skyscraper built on sand.

It's April twenty seventeen, six months before Daphnese murder, a pleasant warm day on the Key Side in Imcida, a harbor town just next to Malta's capital of the letter.

This is a place built for relaxation and luxury. The water is filled with beautiful and expensive yachts popping gently in this well. Right now is just before noon, and a few pedestrians about are mostly middle aged joggers or restaurant workers on a smoke break. But one man is here on Celia's business. Mister Middleman, Melvin Toma has an appointment as definitely would say he's keen to keep the Hearkem the Master off his back. From iHeart Podcasts, Topic

And the inside of the busy Bee is also typical of an old Maltese seafront cafe. Small, with the tables close together, may be not ideal for the kind of private conversation that Melvin the Middleman needs to have today. Even so, it's too late for him to back out now, even if he were.

Considering it and waiting for Melvin. At a table at the back end of the busy Bee is a lanky man in his fifties, thinning hair, nursing a soft drink, Alfred de Bean de Georgio, the brother of Chinese George de Georgio.

The following is once again a reconstruction of events described in court room testimony by one of those present. We've dramatized the evidence and provided color in places without changing any of the material facts or allegations.

On this day, Alfred de Bean has already been sitting here for a few minutes. Around the corner, the third member of the team, Vincent de kof Moscat, is waiting in a car acting as chauffeur. Melvin the Middleman leans across the table and they shake hands wherey small talk follows. If Malta's a small place where everyone knows everyone, the world of Maltese organized crime is even smaller. Both men know that if you cross someone, it's not hard for them to find you. And these two men already go

Especially if you might need someone to be dealt.

With for a certain kind of job. In Malta. The Georgia Brothers are believed to be the real professionals, so much so that Melvin, the middleman, has already been told to seek out the Brothers specifically for this particular task. According to courtroom testimony, that task assassinating Malta's most famous journalist.

Pully Cavelli.

Espresso please thank you coffee is ordered and the real discussion begins Mada.

As middleman, Melvin is acting on behalf of this boss, one of the most powerful men in malt We will call him mister alleged Mastermind, and we are calling him that because he's been indicted for arranging Daphne's murder, but is currently awaiting trial. It seems that mister alleged Mastermind has been finding Daphne's writing extremely inconvenient recently, and he's

So, according to Melvin, mister alleged Mastermind asked him to get in touch with the the Georgia Brothers to resolve the situation. As a first step, Melvin the Middleman has already paid a visit to the Potato Shack, the warehouse that the Jorjo Brothers and Vincent de Koff use as

And now Alfred the Bean is ready to talk in more detail.

The Bean explains that the task is possible, but only for the right price. Melvin signals that he expected this.

Alfred the Bean doesn't know who Melvin the middle Man is working for, and naturally he doesn't ask. Also, he doesn't fully appreciate who daphnely is, her influence in importance in Maltes's politics, or the international impact her death will have on their cottage industry of killing people on the island. In fact, crucially neither of them do.

Both Alfred de Bean and Melvin the Middleman sit on one side of Malta's deep cultural divide, part of the mainly Maulti speaking working class world where English language political blogs are not a big concerned. Although did the Georgis have connections to politicians like Chris Cardona, they do not appear to follow politics too closely. But even so, a contract on someone outside the criminal underworld must be a major undertaking. It can't come cheap, As the Bean explains,

George will later claim that it was easy for him and his brother to settle on these numbers. They simply reuse the figures they had given the last time. Someone had asked them to kill Daphne. That earlier murder plot had fizzled out before an attempt could be made on her lifetor.

Multice for I'll check with someone, and with that, Melvin the Middleman makes it clear he understands the terms of the deal. He finishes his and thanks Alfred de Bean for his time. When the response from his boss comes, Daphne's death warrant will have been signed.

So how do you become a middleman and a murder plot? Why would you involve yourself in a crime on behalf of someone else when you don't even really know who the victim is or stand to benefit from their death? What's in it the Melvin the Middleman.

So far as we can tell, he never asked for any payment for his work enabling the plot, although he did receive some reward. Definitely never wrote about the De Georgia brothers or Melvin the Middleman specifically, but she did write a lot about the culture that lets organized crime and corruption thrive in Malta, the kind of networks and relationships that also underpinned the plot to kill her.

January twenty ninth, twenty fifteen. The fabric of Maltese society is your typical Southern Mediterranean situation in which it's the family versus everybody and everything else.

And this was a recurring theme for Deafnie, that Malta is not a society of laws and moral rules, but instead the culture of networks of power and loyalty.

There is no concept of society and hence absolutely no civic sense. Maltese people do not care about each other. They care about themselves first and foremost, and their immediate family a close second.

And how does loyalty to family get us through a murder plot?

Definitely wrote about that too. For her, Maltese culture was based on what you called a moral feminism. It's a slightly academic term, but then that was sometimes Deafhnie's style. A moral feminalism has its own answer to the question what's the right thing to do. It's not what's best for everyone, or even what's best for most people. Right or wrong, is about what's best for my family, because if it's good for my family, I'm likely to be better off as well.

March twenty fifth, twenty thirteen. Those who wish to understand how Maltese society functions have no choice, but to read up on a moral famiism. A moral famialism is the reason people in Malta use their vote as currency and do not think in terms of the common good or choosing the right government, but in terms of s fighting

The two Maltas. That's Snaphanie's name for the cultural divide between a predominantly English speaking, more middle class group and the more working class Maltese speaking wider population.

Amorral feminism can also mean that if you are a person without power or connections, you will need a godfather to get ahead, someone more powerful than you who can help you climb the leader, someone to act as family.

Melvin Tooma wasn't an known person before all this came to light.

Kert Sansne is executive editor of Monta Today, one of the main English language newspapers in Malta, and someone who has covered the investigation into Deafnie's murder and depth.

I mean, he might have had, you know, some court records, but he wasn't the type you know the name crops up and is ah okay, he's that type of person.

In contrast to men like Alfred de Bean or Chinese George, for example, Melvin the Middleman flew more under the radar with law enforcement, but his backstory and the spider web of criminal loyalty and obligation he was caught up in explains how he came to be involved in Deafnie's killing.

So far, we know that Melvin Town basically was a taxi driver. He used to be given sort of preferential taxi stance treatment outside the Hilton Hotel in Saint Julian's From what.

Has been reported, we also know that Melvin didn't grow up in luxury or privilege. He certainly wasn't plugged into Daphnese blog and the world it served.

But that didn't mean that he wasn't a sevy operator or fiercely intelligent. Melvin the Middleman is a native of birger Khana, the same residential district in the center of Malta where the lawyer Carmel Kirkopp was shot dead. We know that his father died when he was just a teenager, a tragedy which may have forced him to grow up

What's coming on here?

This is old video footage of the Motor Race Club. It's the Club President's Cup Final nineteen ninety three, when Melvin would have been a teenager. One of the nicer legacies of British colonialism, apart from red phone boxes and the liking for greasy breakfasts, the Empire also left as a culture of horse racing.

I'm looking at grainy TV pictures of traps going around in type formation. Each ride on a sort of chariot behind his horse lower.

Those chariots are called three can light two wheeled cards bearing a driver and his whip. For fans, these races matter. A lot of money changes hands.

In the footage. It looks like a close race on that day in the nineteen ninety Some middle class martes are snobbish about the sport. It's seen by them as almost embarrassing, perhaps because, in contrast with its high society British origins, horse racing and mortar has evolved into a distinctly working class activity.

As a young guy, Melvin the Middleman found his calling at the races, working as a groom, running gurians, making connections, and learning how the bookkeeping and gambling business works.

That needs skills how to calculate odds, figure out payouts, balance profit and loss. But also it needs the emotional intelligence to understand the punters, the ability to tempt them into another flutter, just one more bet, to recover their losses, to persuade them to chase a win that is just around the corner.

Absolutely, and Melvin seems to have been good at it. Who was at home a deras trek, connected and trusted By the time, Melvin the Middleman was a young man who was running his own black market betting business, taking bets in exchange for a commission, and allegedly, on at least one occasion, offering loans to men who wanted to keep gambling but had already spent all their money.

And of course those useful extra loans came with interest. One of his first brushes with the low came from this. When he was twenty five, the case was brought against him for loan sharking, charging extortion's interest on money lent for gambling. The court heard how he lent one punter the equivalents of about eight two hundred dollars in today's money. These loans were for betting on the master horse races. The punter paid that all back a few days later,

At some point, it seems, Melvin the Middenman began to think bigger, to look beyond the race track. He started to operate a national black market lottery based on the numbers from the official lottery, but with its own tickets and its own prizes, and again he was good at it. Press reports quote sources saying he was known for paying up promptly when customers won. When he was eventually arrested in connection with Daphanie's murder, police found the equivalent of

If you want to run a successful black market gambling business, eventually you will start to need connections, relationships with people further up the food chain, those with real power, and Melvin the middleman seems to have been astute here too. In his early days at the racetrack, he starts running errands for a powerful, rich family who also keep horses at the track. At first, he takes bets for them as part of his business. It's a natural way in

Black Later, the relationship between him and this family grows into something more personal and more subservient. He brings them gifts of rabbits for their kitchen, a Maltese delicacy, and drops off lows of bread for them to eat, making himself useful and establishing that he deserves a place within the circle of trust and loyalty under the rules of

Everyone, and this young man will grow up to become our mister alleged mastermind. Melvin the middle Man will later testify that when he needed help with something that required government content, he would pass the request through his well connected old friend. The man helps in other important ways too. He's probably the one who arranges for Melvin to be allowed to work the taxi stand outside the Hilton Hotel, a lucrative spot.

And it's not a one sided relationship for mister alleged Mastermind. Melvin the Middleman is useful as well. We know that at various times he acts as a personal chauffeur for Alleged Mastermind, sometimes on deeply personal business. When the patriarch of the family dies, it's Melvin who was trusted with driving Alleged Mastermind to the funeral. At some point, it seems Melvin the Middleman and mister Alleged Mastermind even go on a gambling holiday together to France, with Alleged Mastermind

One day, in April twenty seventeen, Melvin the Middleman gets a call from mister Alleged Mastermind is a request to meet face to face to talk. Melvin doesn't hesitate. By this time, the Labor government of Joseph Muscat has been in power for four years. A general election has been called early and is due in a few weeks. Daphne is now one of the government's most outspoken and effective critics.

It was a restaurant by the name of Blue Elephant.

Jason Atza Pardi the lawyer for Dafinie family.

And over there he spoke with Melvin Toma, asking him how he could get in touch with a particular criminal, one of Malta's foremost underworld criminals, because he needed to get rid of someone.

That someone is definite. According to court testimony given by Melvin the Middleman, the request is as follows, do you know Chinese George because I need him I want to kill Dafnicia. There's no room for confusion. Melvin is being recruited as the middleman in a conspiracy to commit murder and.

For me, this is one of the most depressing moments in the whole story. Melvin the Middleman's criminal activity, so far as we know, is black market bookmaking, working the dark side of gambling, maybe some loan sharking, all illegal, but he's not a killer. But at that moment, by the Blue Elephant is being asked to organize the murder of an innocent woman. By any normal moral compass, it's straightforwardly evil. It's also not even in his financial self interest.

But that's not what it does. In fact, he's all in. And to understand why, I think Definie's on analysis is useful. Once again, however evil this plan is, and however risky it is, for Melvin Dedman, under the rules of AMORL feminism, the only ethical value that he must honor is loyalty. Loyalty to the family and Melvin the Middleman's years of history with the alleged Mastermind, the gifts, the favors, the odd jobs, make alleged Mastermind's family Melvin's own. As Dephney said,

Melvin Toma got going and contacted the Georgios, and thereafter a series of contacts starts until one fine day they meet in a cafeteria in the small town of Incida, where the details of the commissioning of the murder to take place were given, the price requested, and subsequently Melvin Toma, of course, each time going back to the Mastermind.

The same cafe meeting by the key side that this episode started with. In the weeks that follow that meeting, Melvin's enabling role as middleman becomes crucial, varying information and instructions between the assassins and his powerful friend. After the busy Bee meeting, he relays the price that Alfred the Bean has quoted one hundred and fifty thousand euros, and mister alleged Mastermind signs off on it. It is Melvin the Middleman who then informs the killers that preparations for

Throughout, Melvin the Middleman is providing a crucial service, a layer of insulation and distance between mister alleged Mastermind and the actual killers who will murder Dafny. Thanks to Melvin the Middleman, Daphnee killers do not know who they are ultimately working for.

Soon after the killing is agreed and the preparations have begun, he gets a call from mister alleged Mastermind, who says that someone is about to get in touch an important official. When he asks what the call will be about, mister alleged Mastermind declines to discuss it on the phone. Soon after,

He's Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's right hand man. They even went to school together. It was Skembury who managed the election campaign that first got Joseph Mouscat elected in twenty thirteen, and as the Prime Minister's chief of staff, he's considered by some to be the real power behind the throne in Malta. Needless to say, definitely. Karina Galizia isn't a fan of mister Scambrie. He's one of the politicians she is most famous for attacking, along with the Prime Minister

He's understandably amazed to be greeted by mister Skembrey himself. In fact, Melvin the Middleman seems to be an honored guest for some reason. Keith Schambrie, who's made time to give Melvin a Middleman, a black market bookie, a personal tour of his office. He also offers Melvin a coffee. Melvin has the presence of mind to get a photo of them together himself and mister Skembury arms around each other's shoulders in the office of the Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister of Malta.

Years later, this will become one of the most famous photos in Malta.

Soon after, Melvin the Middleman gets another invitation to a government building, where another surprise waits for him. Without warning, he finds he's in a job interview. It lasts a few minutes, and he's then informed that he's now a public employee, a government driver. He will receive a regular salary of around one thousand dollars a month, Melvin the Middleman is so confused. He tries to argue, pointing out that he doesn't need another job, as he's already got

It appears that alleged mastermind is even better connected with politicians than Melvin the Middleman realized.

So you can still understand some of why Melvin might be surprised by all of this. If you're involved in planning a murder, it seems obvious that you would try and keep things as to screech and quiet as possible as few people involved as you can. But instead, Melvin the Middleman is being invited to photo opportunities and guided tools with politicians, and now because of his fake government job, there is a financial paper trail involving him as well.

Not very discreeched exactly, and this set of meetings in government offices does turn note to be catastrophic for everyone involved, no matter whether any of the officials and politicians actually know about the rest of the murder plot. Years later, in twenty twenty two, Keach Cambrie, Sandro Craus, mister alleged Mastermind, and two other men will be entitled criminal charges of theft and misappropriation for their role in providing Melvin the

A few months later, Melvin the Middleman completes his mission definitely is murdered, but this isn't the end of the assignment. He continues his crucial work as middleman. He returns to the busybe Cafe to pass only a greed payment in cash to the assassins, and he continues to provide a communication channel between them and mister alleged mastermind.

After the murder, Melvin de middleman Toma begins to get nervous. Like everyone else. He's watching the growing protests of Verdephnie's death, the demonstrations by women's groups and human rights organizations at the Great Siege Monument that we heard about last episode.

Belvin Toma who never anticipated the uproar, this tsunami of reactions, the civil society protests.

He never expected not to know in their wildest dreams.

The tsunami of reactions is coming from the other Malta, the world of the mainly middle class of English speaking, certainly English reading Malta, the Malta of Deafney supporters.

This was all, let's say, on chartered territory for them. They never anticipated it would. And there was a moment where literally month after month, various countries around the world, as far as far away as Japan and the USA recognizing the sterling work of definite Carna Galicia, and that is something that instilled fear, the fear of being caught.

But it turns out that mister Relligit Mastermind does have one very important weapon to defend himself and everyone else involved in Daphne's murder, access to information. The police investigation into Daphne's death is supposed to be the most secure and tightly monitored operation and more as recent history. And yet somehow did the Georgias and Vince de Koff knew that trade on their Potecto Schad was coming.

How Throughout the investigation, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat is given regular confidential briefings with police investigators to hear the progress they are making in solving the case. These briefings include every breakthrough that the investigators make, an information about who is on their list of suspects. One of the senior police officers each briefing is Deputy Police Commissioner Sylvia of

That's not all. It turns out that the Prime Minister, Joseph Mouscat himself also knows mister alleged master Mindwald. Melvin the Middleman later said that he was given to understand they were very close friends. The two of them also message each other regularly through WhatsApp, with hundreds of messages sent over several years. At some point, a private WhatsApp group is even created. The only members are the Prime Minister,

And Keith Schambrie, the Prime Minister's chief of staff, is relevant for another reason. He's another of the people regularly present at the confidential security briefings on Daphne's murder, even though his job has no direct relation to law enforcement. Keith Schambrie has denied leaking this information.

In other words, the investigation into Daphne's death is deeply compromised from day one. All the painstaking early investigative work by the FBI, the project to correct the killers as a mess messages, triangulate their positions, and gather daming phone evidence, all of that is leaked to the criminals.

This is how the assassins are so well prepared when their hideout is hit with the dawn swat raid. This is the real answer when the interrogating officer asked Chinese George, how did you know we were coming?

George?

They knew the police were coming because this is Malta and their intelligence was better than that of the police.

Secretly taped recordings revealed mister Eligit mastermind, telling Melvin that he should relax more to remember they are now in control. It's simple, he says.

He told him, don't worry.

As long as we have the money, they can kiss our balls quote unquote in vernacular molt ease.

That was the mindset.

Once I have the money, once I'm so rich, I am untouchabile.

We do have one other insight into the special moral compass of Melvin the Middleman. Years later, when he was testifying about his role in the murder Jason as a party cross examined him as a party asked him in court.

Didn't you realize?

Didn't you ever think you are going to kill a woman, a mother, a wife.

A daughter, a sister.

Okay, she was a human being, and Melvin Toma went silent.

You could hear a pin drop in the courtroom.

He broke down, crying, admitting that it was the first time that moment someone had made him see the cruelty, the inhumanity of what he had done.

But that crisis of conscience is still a long way off. Back in early twenty eighteen, in the first few months of the Daphne's death and the protests and the Swat raid and the arrests of the assassins, Melvin the Middleman begins to be consumed by fear that he might not be as safe as he taught. That's next. Crooks Everywhere is a production of iHeart Podcasts, Topic Studios and Vespucci It's reported and hosted by me Manuel Delilla and John Sweeney.