The owner of the Storie & Sapori restaurant chain has been extradited from Italy to Malta to face charges of alleged tax fraud and money laundering involving more than €2 million.Giuseppe Napolitano, 53, appeared in court on Saturday after being arrested under a European Arrest Warrant. He pleaded not guilty to all charges as reported by Times of Malta.Napolitano, who had been living in Italy and operating a restaurant in Naples, was denied bail by the court, which also ordered the freezing of his assets.The case stems from an investigation by the Police’s Financial Crimes Investigations Department (FCID) into the restaurant chain’s operations in Gżira and St Julian’s.Investigators flagged around €238,000 in voided transactions and a further €54,000 in cancelled transactions between January 2020 and August 2021. They also identified €1.6 million in suspicious transactions linked to the St Julian’s restaurant.Prosecutors further allege that Napolitano left Malta with more than €2 million in unpaid tax liabilities.Defence lawyer Jason Azzopardi argued that his client had been in discussions with the tax authorities to regularise his position under legislation allowing certain tax offences to be settled out of court.However, prosecutors objected to bail, pointing out that Napolitano had been outside Malta for the past 18 months. Magistrate Kevan Azzopardi agreed, denying the request.Napolitano is being represented by lawyers Jason Azzopardi, Kris Busietta and Alessandro Farrugia.•