Amphora Media has won its first journalism award
18 October 2025
Amphora Media, the collaborative journalism platform we launched earlier this year, has won its first journalism award. Together with Times of Malta, OCCRP, and IRPI, Amphora Media won the Crime & Legal Affairs Journalism Award in this year’s edition of the Malta Journalism Association awards.
The winning investigation, published in June this year, exposed the money web operated by the Agius “Tal-Maksar” crime family. Amphora Media’s story reported that:
- Robert and Adrian Agius, known as the Maksar brothers, generated millions through property deals and private loan agreements.
- The Maksar brothers and their accomplice, Jamie Vella, are placed in a trafficking network with international organised crime groups.
- Loans, car deals, and real estate transactions masked the brothers’ operations. Ages Investments Ltd., whose sole shareholder is Denise Agius, Robert’s wife, handled over €2.5 million in property and loans.
- Deals continued even after the Agius brothers were charged with the murders of Daphne Caruana Galizia and Carmel Chircop.
- Maksars appear to have leveraged indirect streams to sidestep financial oversight, including:
- Property deals and private loans with Brian Cutajar, who helped settle debts linked to the Chircop murder.
- James Zammit and his Finance House issued a €1.3 million loan to Ages Investments.
- Businessman Hugo Chetcuti issued a private loan to the Maksar family and purchased a boat yard from them.
Amphora Media
- Inside the ‘Tal-Maksar’ Money Web: How The Agius Family Moved Millions Despite Asset Freezes
- We Media, Producers Of Istrina And Xarabank, Issued Payments To Maksar Family And Associate