Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1176246
3 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 13 OCTOBER 2019 NEWS MATTHEW VELLA THE lawyer of one of the main suspects in an alleged €30 mil- lion oil-smuggling ring being prosecuted in Italy, has told MaltaToday in a letter that Sicilian accomplice Nicola Orazio Romeo "is not a Mafia associate". Romeo, 47, is accused of forming part of the criminal conspiracy that smuggled oil from Libya, using boats be- longing to former Malta foot- baller Darren Debono, aided through companies set up by Gordon Debono, and then sold in Italy. According to the letter sent to MaltaToday by Mario Car- dillo, Romeo's lawyer, "the al- legation of Romeo being an associate of the Mafia is cat- egorically false! Romeo is un- impeachable, has never been reported for Mafia, and is only facing proceedings in the Syra- cuse tribunal over something that has nothing to do with the Mafia." The lawyer warned Malta- Today that Romeo would take legal action to defend his repu- tation. It was Italian investigators in Operation Dirty Oil who, in fact, described Romeo – who has companies domiciled in Malta – as being associated with the Mafia. Various Italian newspa- pers, both regional as well as national titles, have invari- ably described Romeo as be- ing "tied" to the Sicilian Mafia and "close" to the Santapaola- Ercolano family: a Catanese clan responsible for the 1984 murder of journalist Giuseppe Fava. But more specifically, it was the Catanese police investiga- tors who declared, in the pros- ecutors' report that accom- panied the charge sheet, that Romeo's actions were carried out "to further the business interests of the Santapaola- Ercolano family". The same report details a tel- ephonic interception in which the smuggling ring's Italian as- sociates also speak of Romeo's connections to the Sicilian un- derworld. "Nicola is part of the real underworld, the one no- body touches," accused Mas- simo Porta tells a colleague. "He's always being tapped when he is in Sicily." Additionally, Romeo was listed in yet another Italian in- vestigation which specifically accused of him of the crime of Mafia association, within the Santapaola-Ercolano fam- ily. Operation Gaming Offline includes Romeo in its list of accused in a conspiracy on money laundering that used Malta as one of the bases for a gaming company. Some 68 people across the three south- ern Italian regions were arrest- ed, with 29 arrest warrants in- volving Mafia bosses based in Catania, Syracuse, Caltanisetta and Ragusa issued, accused of running illegal gambling op- erations operating under the Planetwin365 brand, a compa- ny licensed by the Malta gam- ing regulator. According to evidence re- vealed by police investigators in Operation Dirty Oil, Ro- meo and his Maltese associ- ates would use the company Oceano Blu Trading Ltd, as well as other offshore compa- nies in the British Virgin Is- lands, to hide the flow of mon- ey used to pay Bin Khalifa. Romeo also happens to have a Maltese 'address', housed at the same San Gwann address where Darren Debono's com- panies and ships were domi- ciled. Earlier this week, one of Ro- meo's smuggling associates, Gordon Debono, was revealed to have two court decisions in Cyprus ordering that two of his offshore companies – Belize company Oil & Ship Consultancy (OSC) and BVI company Marine Offshore In- vestments Ltd (MOIL) – pay a total of €2.8 million to the Dubai company International Properties and Investment Ltd (IPIL) as part of a loan agree- ment agreed back in Septem- ber 2017, just before Debono's arrest in Sicily. As it turns out, IPIL's 'board of directors' is represented by Gordon Debono's wife, Yvette. Now lawyers for both husband and wife in Malta are asking the courts to recognise the Cypriot decision, as per EU law. Originally, the United States' Office of Foreign Assets Con- trol issued sanctions on com- panies owned by Gordon Debono, but neither MOIL nor OSC were identified in the first raft of sanctions. Smuggling suspect's 'no mafioso', lawyer warns MaltaToday Nicola Orazio Romeo (left) in Malta with Massimo Porta, an Italian bunkering company representative, and Darren Debono (right). Italian police have described Romeo as being 'tied' to a Catanese Mafia family CONTINUED FORM PAGE 1 A highly-placed source said the police has requested paper- work and case files on all the clients which Chetcuti Cauchi had presented to the Malta IIP Agency as applicants for the gold passport. "While the aim is to ascertain whether any undue influence was utilised in the conduct of business, the probe has yet to determine whether there is a criminal case to prosecute," the source said. Since the airing of the TV pro- gramme in September, both Chetcuti Cauchi's two licences to promote the IIP have been suspended. A keynote address by Chetcuti was also struck off the scheduled programme at an international passport market- ing conference held in Malta last week. And the Chamber of Advo- cates has referred Chetcuti's alleged breach of conduct to Commission for the Adminis- tration of Justice to investigate alleged breaches of the code of conduct. The Chamber of Ad- vocates said that while it would conduct its own investigation into whether Chetcuti would be stripped of his membership with the Chamber, it would wait for the conclusions of the judicial watchdog's committee of advocates. Chetcuti has publicly declared he never promised to obtain "any illegal advantage" for his clients. "I deny that I promised to obtain any illegal advantage for our clients. I equally deny that I ever spoke to politicians to illegally intervene on our clients' behalf," Chetcuti said, adding that he would only be answering questions after any investigations are over. He added that no client of his, whose application for a Maltese passport was rejected, has ever had the rejection overturned. "We have never accepted cli- ents with a criminal record. In addition, none of our clients has ever had his or her citizen- ship revoked because of crimi- nal convictions after citizenship was granted," he said. "We have no difficulty to open our doors to scrutiny by public institutions. Let them do all the work that the law obliges them to do. It does not worry us. The only thing I ask is that the re- view of our licence is carried out in the shortest time possible. The livelihoods of 140 families are at stake," Chetcuti said. In the French TV programme, Chetcuti spoke freely of his rap- port with politicians. "Julia Farrugia, the parlia- mentary secretary in charge of the programme, is a child- hood friend of my wife. It's good to have a wife with similar friends," the lawyer said. "It's a small island… I was at school with the Prime Minister – my father drove us to school and we would be invited to each other's parties. We understand each other." Later, when the conversation turns to a problematic dossier – a client who may have criminal precedents – Chetcuti tells the journalist: "I tell the minister: 'with more information, you will have a more complete view of the dossier', and indeed, they do not need to give any reasons for the rejection of the dossier, but they can close an eye… and later, I can give them new infor- mation that would benefit the client." Police probe into passport agent Jean-Philippe Chetcuti's carefree assertions about influence with the political class led to the suspension of both his firm's IIP licences, as well as an inquiry into his practice and an investigation by the judicial watchdog's committee of advocates