Four Heritage Malta employees have been arraigned in court after allegedly selling counterfeit museum tickets and pocketing the money instead of passing it on to the national heritage agency.The employees are facing fraud-related charges following an internal investigation that reportedly uncovered irregularities involving admission tickets at two museums operated by Heritage Malta.According to a statement issued by the agency on today the case came to light following internal audits and investigations which suggested that the four employees may have been selling counterfeit tickets to visitors.While money collected from legitimate admission tickets was properly recorded and received by Heritage Malta, revenue from the allegedly fake tickets was not registered in the agency’s official ticketing system.Instead, investigators suspect that the money was retained by certain employees for their own financial gain.Following the discovery, Heritage Malta launched a comprehensive review of its other museums and historical sites to determine whether similar irregularities may have occurred elsewhere.The agency also referred the matter to the police, who carried out further investigations.All four employees have since been suspended from their duties with immediate effect, pending the outcome of the court proceedings.Heritage Malta stressed that the case is completely unrelated to an earlier incident involving a fraudulent website impersonating the agency and offering fake admission tickets to museums and historical attractions.That previous case involved an external website, while the latest allegations concern suspected irregularities involving employees and the agency’s ticketing system.The agency has not disclosed which two museums were allegedly affected or how much money may have been involved.The four employees now face court proceedings over the allegations, which have yet to be proven.•