Casino Tycoon Yorgen Fenech Acquitted of Daphne Caruana Galizia Car-Bomb Murder

Maltese casino tycoon Yorgen Fenech was sensationally acquitted of involvement in the murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia Wednesday (September 3).

A jury in Valletta, Malta’s capital, found Fenech not guilty by an eight-to-one majority on charges of complicity in murder and criminal association.

The verdict was delivered to gasps from the gallery and cheers from Fenech’s relatives, The Guardian reported.

Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb in October 2017, a crime that attracted international attention.

Blood Money

Fenech, one of Malta’s richest men, was accused of masterminding the murder and paying €150,000 (US$177,000) for the killing through middleman Melvin Theuma, who admitted relaying his instructions to brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio and their associate, Vince Muscat.

The Degiorgio brothers were each sentenced to 40 years in prison for planting the bomb, concealed inside a child’s shoebox beneath the driver’s seat of Caruana Galizia’s Peugeot 108.

Muscat, who cooperated with investigators, was sentenced to 15 years. In June 2025, two other men convicted of supplying the bomb received life sentences.

Theuma was arrested in November 2019 and offered a presidential pardon in exchange for testimony about the murder. The following day, Fenech was intercepted while allegedly attempting to flee Malta in his yacht.

Prosecutors argued that Fenech ordered Caruana Galizia’s murder because he feared she was close to exposing corruption surrounding a $500 million government energy contract awarded to Electrogas, a company in which he held a major stake.

17 Black

Her reporting uncovered evidence that a Dubai-registered company, 17 Black, was expected to transfer $2 million to two offshore companies owned by Keith Schembri, then-chief of staff to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, and Konrad Mizzi, who served as Malta’s energy minister before later becoming health minister.

Caruana Galizia was killed before she could reveal that Fenech owned 17 Black. The connection was later uncovered by an international consortium of investigative journalists who continued investigating her unfinished work after her death.

Fenech’s lawyers argued that it was Schembri who ordered the killing. They claimed their client had been scapegoated by Theuma, whom they painted as a liar and a blackmailer who accused Fenech to save himself.

Schembri has not been accused of the crime and was not considered a suspect by investigators.

Government Collapse

Fenech’s arrest sparked mass demonstrations against corruption in Malta and the perceived immunity enjoyed by political and business elites, leading to the collapse of the Muscat government.

In a statement, Caruana Galizia’s family said the verdict denied her the “justice she deserves.”

“Nine years after Daphne’s brutal assassination, the institutional failures that enabled her murder remain unaddressed and unreformed. Lasting justice means no person should ever face the same risks again,” the family added. “Our country failed to protect Daphne. It owes it to her to prevent other lives being lost.”

Prosecutors have said they will appeal the verdict.