Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1292560
8 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 SEPTEMBER 2020 NEWS Vatican broker's Malta firm in London property sale scandal MATTHEW VELLA AN Italian insurer has filed a €2 mil- lion lawsuit against the Italian director of the Maltese financial services firm Sunset Financials, who is implicated in a Vatican finance scandal. Net Insurance SpA filed the claim in London's High Court against Gianluigi Torzi for failing to fulfill the terms of a 2019 settlement agreement. The Italian financier was arrested in June in connection with his role in a London real estate deal and released from prison on bail on 15 June. He is charged with extortion, embezzlement, aggravated fraud and money launder- ing. Net Insurance said Sunset failed to complete a significant obligation to organise the sale of certain 'Augusto' bonds for €10 million, or provide that money in cash by December 2019. As part of the settlement, the breach triggered a €2 million payment due to Net Insurance, which to date has gone unpaid. Torzi is disputing the breach. Torzi, who is based in the UK, is charged with fraud in Italy for his role brokering the Vatican's purchase of a luxury €379 million London building, after he provided a loan to the seller of the property months before the real es- tate deal took place. The Vatican charged Torzi with over his role as middleman in the 2018 ac- quisition of 60 Sloane Avenue in Lon- don, on behalf of an arm of the Vati- can, from Raffaele Mincione. Vatican prosecutors suspect the price paid for the property, negotiated by Torzi him- self, and funded by Catholic charitable donations and a €135m mortgage, was higher than the building's worth. However, 11 months before the prop- erty transaction, in January 2018, Tor- JAMES DEBONO THE garden of a historical building in Msida granted protection by the Plan- ning Authority in 2018 could become the site of a six-storey apartment block. The garden is part of the area scheduled by the PA and includes 12 mature trees and a well. Owner Michael Bonello will re- store the existing house and 'rem- issa' with minor alterations, remove "dilapidated garden structures" and replace them with basement garages and overlying apartments. The building, in the corner of Triq it-Torri and Triq il-Kuncizzjoni, forms part of a row of eight hous- es granted protection by the PA in 2018. The recommendation for scheduling made by the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage was made with the express intention to protect the streetscape, repre- senting a period of the town that has largely been lost over the past decades due to intense urbanisation. While Grade 1 prop- erties like historical churches and their sur- roundings enjoy maxi- mum protection, Grade 2 properties are largely protected from demoli- tion but may be subject to internal alterations. But in the past the PA has approved apartments located in the gardens of these buildings: in 2018 the PA not only approved an extra storey on The Cloisters, a scheduled building in St Julian's, but also a seven-storey block in its gardens. Recently environment minister Aaron Farrugia announced new guidelines regulating developments next to scheduled buildings. The PA must prepare a detailed assessment of the impacts of any proposed development on protect- ed buildings and identify mitigation measures. This assessment must be supported by recommendations from CSH, with photomontages from strategic viewpoints. Archi- tectural design must respect street context and blend in with the sur- roundings. Protected Msida streetscape threatened by six-storey block Scheduled townhouse row in Msida. But in the past the PA has approved apartments located in the gardens of such buildings