Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1009910
maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 1 AUGUST 2018 3 NEWS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Portelli was the only witness to provide Magistrate Aaron Bugeja with print outs of the declarations of trust that sup- posedly showed how Egrant Inc. belonged to Michelle Muscat, the Prime Minister's wife. A 15-month-long inquiry es- tablished that the documents were forged and the signa- tures falsified. The inquiry also found no evidence to link Egrant to the Prime Minister and his wife. Portelli has insisted it was his duty to take the documents to the magistrate once they land- ed on his lap. At the time, Portelli was di- rector of content at The Malta Independent and had also in- terviewed the former Piltaus Bank employee Maria Efi- mova, who was allegedly the source for Daphne Caruana Galizia. Portelli has not revealed who the source of his documents was and neither is there refer- ence to such in the published part of the inquiry. But the sources said the in- quiry has pointed a strong ac- cusing finger towards Jonathan Ferris and Maria Efimova, call- ing for them to be investigated by the police. Ferris, a former analyst at the Financial Intelligence Analy- sis Unit, is understood to have told the magistrate that he had seen the $1 million transac- tion that was supposed to have been transferred to Egrant Inc. from an Azerbaijani-owned company. Ferris's claim was shot down by the inquiry findings that found no evidence of the trans- action that was allegedly made from the Pilatus Bank account of Sahra FZCO, a company belonging to the daughters of Azerbaijan's president, to Egrant Inc. At the time the Egrant allega- tion was made last year, Ferris had privileged access to infor- mation on Pilatus Bank by vir- tue of his employment at the FIAU. In the 50-page findings that have been published so far, Efimova is indicated as hav- ing given Bugeja four differ- ent versions on the $1 million transaction. Two of the versions were in complete contrast, with Efi- mova first telling the magis- trate that she had not seen documentation pertaining to the transaction and later say- ing she had seen payment in- structions. The inquiry revealed that no company by the name Egrant had a bank account at Pilatus. No link was established be- tween the Muscats and Egrant, and no transactions took place between accounts belonging to Azeri politically exposed per- sons and the Prime Minister, Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi. SAVIOUR BALZAN A 15-month-long inquiry that took Magistrate Aaron Bugeja to two different countries and saw him use foreign experts to unravel the Egrant fabrication has cost €1.3 million. By 24 July, payments made in relation to the Egrant inquiry had totalled €1,257,759, ac- cording to the directorate gen- eral of the law courts. Bugeja was tasked to inves- tigate the allegations made on Daphne Caruana Galizia's blog in April last year that Egrant Inc. belonged to Michelle Mus- cat, the Prime Minister's wife, and that she had received $1 million from Leyla Aliyeva, the daughter of Azeri President Il- ham Aliyev. The inquiry found that none of the reported assertions were true. The directorate general said Magistrate Bugeja was from the start, given full and un- restrained access to funds as deemed necessary. Although no records exist as to the expenses for individual inquiries, sources close to the court have described the Egrant inquiry as "the most expensive ever conducted in Malta's legal history". A recent air crash inquiry cost €220,000, while the inquiry into the Paqpaqli incident of 2015 is believed to have cost €17,000. The expenses include visits made by Magistrate Bugeja in two different countries as part of his meticulous probe into the allegations. In all four countries collabo- rated in the inquiry – Panama, Belgium, Germany and the US. The magistrate also used 14 different experts or expert firms, including a forensic ac- countant and forgery special- ists to determine the veracity or otherwise of the documents he was presented with. Egrant: 'The most expensive inquiry in Malta's legal history' YANNICK PACE THE number of people living at risk of poverty increased by 0.3% between 2016 and 2017, data is- sued by the National Statistics Office shows. According to the NSO the re- sults of the 'European Statistics on Income and Living Condi- tions (EU-SILC)' survey, which is held annually, the number of people with a national equiv- alised income, below €8,698 – the at-risk-of-poverty line – stood at 72,142 in 2017, amount- ing to 16.8% of the population. On the other hand, the survey found that the number of peo- ple living in conditions of se- vere material depravation fell by 1.1%, to 3.3% of the population. The NSO said that the three most influential variables con- tributing to the decrease were: the ability of households to face unexpected financial expenses; ability of households to avoid being in arrears on mortgage or rent payments, utility bills, hire purchase instalments, or other loan payments; ability of house- holds to spend one week's an- nual holiday away from home. Moreover, the at-risk-of- poverty or social exclusion rate (AROPE) decreased by 0.9% when compared to EU-SILC 2016. AROPE provides the share of persons who are either at-risk- of-poverty, or severely materi- ally deprived, or residing in a household with low work inten- sity. Finally, the survey found the average gross household income for 2016 to be roughly €33,202, while the average disposable household income was €27,722. AROPE reaches all time low Addressing a press conference on the survey's findings Social Solidarity minister Michael Falzon, said that the number of at-risk-of-poverty or social ex- clusion rate (AROPE) was the lowest it had ever been since statistics started being collected. Falzon said that the survey showed that 3,000 people had risen out of the risk of poverty or social exclusion during 2017, with over 16,000 having risen out of the bracket since 2013. Increase in number of people with income below 'at risk of poverty' threshold Petrol and diesel to increase by 5c per litre UNLEADED petrol will re- tail for €1.36 per litre and diesel for €1.23 per litre from tomorrow, the State-owned company Enemed said. Both fuels will increase by 5c per litre. The company al- so said that the super petrol, known as E-Power, will also increase by 5c and will retail for €1.51 per litre. The last price revision was in January 2017 when the price of petrol and diesel rose by 4c per litre. In a short statement re- leased by Enemed yesterday evening, the company did not explain the increases. Enemed was created when the petroleum division was hived off from Enemalta. It is by far the dominant mar- ket player in fuels. According to the latest oil bulletin released by the Eu- ropean Commission on 23 July, petrol in Malta was 9th cheapest in the EU and die- sel the fourth cheapest. In a separate statement, the Energy Ministry said the revised prices still leave Mal- tese motorists paying well below the EU average. Petrol is now the 13th cheapest from 28 countries and diesel the ninth cheapest. The ministry said the gov- ernment's policy for price stability in fuels has en- sured that over the past 82 weeks, petrol in Malta was 6c cheaper than the EU av- erage, while diesel was 7c cheaper. Documents were forged and the signatures falsified