Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1240944
5 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 26 APRIL 2020 NEWS MATTHEW AGIUS THE owner of a major weapons supply company and maritime vessel charterer, James Fenech, was on Friday charged with breaching EU sanctions by sup- plying rigid-hull inflatable boats (RHIB) to Libya. Although police released details of the case on Saturday, a spokes- person refused to publish the names of the accused. Fenech is the owner of Tangent Venctor Projects, which formed part of a consortium that bid for €70 million in government road projects together with the Turk- ish Excel Sis Enerji Uretim Con- struction. Together with Gozitan developer Joseph Portelli's com- pany Excel Investments, he owns the company Fortis As- phalt & Concrete. But Fenech is known for his services in weapons sup- ply and maritime security with companies Fieldsports, Outdoor Gear Supplies Ltd, PBM, RAE Malta, Safety At Sea Logistics, Sovereign Charterers, and State- gic Supplies Ltd. All companies fall under his Unified Global Ser- vices Group. Sovereign Charterers is a vessel chartering company for compa- nies in oil and gas, search and rescue, film production, and logistics. Together with four of his employees, Fenech, 41 from Mellieha, pleaded not guilty to breach- ing EU sanctions. The other four men, aged 63, 47, 45 and 44, as well as the company Sovereign Charterers itself, were charged with sanctions-busting, having transferred directly or in- directly two RHIBs registered in Malta to Libya and in so doing, breaching regulations laid down by the Council of the European Union. A request to freeze assets linked to Fenech has also been issued and accepted by the courts, the police said. Long and intensive investiga- tions by the police counter-ter- rorism squad led to the arrests, police said in a statement. The investigations be- gan after the police re- ceived information that a Maltese-registered com- pany had alleged- ly exported two boats to Libya without the permission of the Maltese authorities in June last year. The deal had been struck be- tween a Maltese company and another company based in the UAE for the boats to be sent to Libya in case an emergency evac- uation was required by the Emira- ti company. Investigators believe the incident is more likely linked to private military contractors who were believed to have been monitoring a shipment of weap- ons into Libyan waters. Superintendent George Cremo- na and Inspector Omar Zammit prosecuted. Magistrate Victor Axiaq presided. Fenech's Fieldsports had once partnered with infamous former US private militia operator Erik Prince, in a venture that was re- portedly set to produce and sell ammunition. A 2007 report by the European Parliament had found that Malta had, at the time, been the operational base for Prince's private militia company, formerly known as Blackwater. Sovereign Charterers had ad- mitted to having chartered one of its Maltese-registered vessels to an unidentified third party, when it was found abandoned in Zuetina, Libya. The RHIB was reported on several Arabic news websites and Facebook groups linking it to the possible insertion of intelligence forces inside Libya sent to survey and collect infor- mation about the movement of terrorist groups. Sovereign Char- terers had said the boat was used for oil and gas services, and that their client had reported that the vessel broke its moors due to bad weather, ending up being sub- merged and impossible for sal- vage. Arms dealer charged in Libya sanctions breach James Fenech