The firm is a Maltese practice of accountants and company service providers. Kestrel Marine Supplies Ltd has been a client for six years, and under a mandate agreed at the outset a partner of the firm is the second signatory on its bank account for larger payments. At twenty to five on a Tuesday afternoon, an instruction arrives.
- The client: Kestrel Marine Supplies Ltd, incorporated in Malta in 2016, a client since 2019. Ship chandlery — provisions, spares, paint, lubricants and safety equipment to vessels calling at Valletta and Marsaxlokk. Twenty-two employees and a leased warehouse in Marsa. Turnover €6,200,000 last year, audited by a two-partner Maltese practice with an unqualified opinion; VAT and payroll up to date. Roughly 8% of sales are taken in cash over the counter from crews, recorded on the till and banked weekly.
- Ownership and control: Joseph Grech 60% and Christine Muscat 40%, both Maltese, both directors and both working in the business. Identity verified; screening returned nothing at onboarding and nothing again at the review in January.
- The firm’s role: company secretary, bookkeeping and management accounts. Under a mandate agreed in 2019, a partner of the firm is second signatory for any payment above €100,000 — about ten a year, the largest to date €165,000, every one of them to a trade supplier in Italy, Greece or Turkey and every one matching an entry in the purchase ledger.
- The instruction: Tuesday, 16:40. An email from Kestrel’s operations manager asking for the second signature on a payment of €476,000, to leave the same day.
- The invoice: issued by Aegean Marine Logistics Ltd, a Cyprus company, for “bunker fuel supply and demurrage”. Kestrel does not sell bunker fuel and holds no licence to do so, and the purchase ledger has no entry for the supplier or the amount.
- The payee: the payment instructions on the invoice are to an account at a payment institution in Lithuania, held in the name of Bosphorus Ship Services Ltd — not the company that issued the invoice.
- The credit: on Monday, €500,000 was credited to Kestrel’s account by Levanter Chartering Ltd, referenced “advance — charter”. Kestrel does not charter vessels and has no prior dealing with Levanter. €500,000 in, €476,000 out, €24,000 left behind.
- What the shareholder says: telephoned, Joseph Grech explained at once and without being pressed. A friend’s shipping company “has a banking problem in Turkey and cannot get money out”; Kestrel is “letting them use the account this once”; the €24,000 is “for the trouble”. Told the firm would not be signing that afternoon, he accepted it without argument.
- The payer: Levanter Chartering Ltd is also a client of the firm — company secretary only, no bookkeeping and no bank mandate. Onboarded in 2022, one Maltese-resident shareholder, nothing outstanding on its file.
- The push-back: an hour later the operations manager emailed again. The cargo is alongside, demurrage is running at €9,200 a day, and “the accountants are costing us money by the hour”. Ms Muscat has not been in touch.