Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1305625
2 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 1 NOVEMBER 2020 NEWS Delivery fee of just €1 per day for orders up to 5 newspapers per address To subscribe 1. Email us your choice of newspapers, recipient's name, address, contact number to production @millermalta.com 2. Forward cheques payable to Miller Distributors Ltd on address: Miller House, Airport Way, Tarxien Road, Luqa LQA1814 Queries on other news- papers and magazines, production@ millermalta.com maltatoday Same-day delivery of your favourite Sunday newspaper Monday-Friday MaltaToday Midweek • €1 BusinessToday • €1.50 Sunday MaltaToday • €1.95 ILLUM • €1.25 Support your favourite newspaper with a subscription https://bit.ly/2X9csmr CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 A Maltese court on Friday said Streamcast had to pay over €422,000 to Enemalta for leas- ing space at the Marsa pow- er station for its data centre. The server farm project never materialised and in February 2020 Enemalta filed a claim for €157,551 in contractual dues, €219,480 for use of infrastruc- ture and €34,230 for energy bills. The sum included eight tranches of €22,507 in ground rent and a private agreement for the rental of two fibre optic cables from the Sicily intercon- nector. Enemalta CEO Jason Vella told the court that in November 2019, Enemalta found technical damage during a site inspection and contacted Streamcast to remedy the situation as there was a fire risk. Streamcast said it had nobody who could fix the damage and so the electricity supply to the data centre was suspended. "There was no sub- sequent effort by Streamcast to reconnect the electricity supply to use the data centre and the project is now dead," Vella said. Streamcast did not reply to any of the accusations in court, nev- er sending a legal representative to court. The court said the evidence provided by Enemalta led it to be morally convinced that the defendants had abandoned the site and therefore breached the contract, apart from not paying rent. The court upheld the claim by Enemalta for Streamcast to pay the amounts due, with legal interest. But it is unlikely that Stream- cast will be paying Enemalta its dues. Streamcast has also been condemned to pay €300,000 to Melita for internet connection fees dating back to the date of its incorporation. Another pri- vate company, P&C Limited, filed a judicial letter in March demanding the enforcement of a promise of sale on an office block in Marsa for €7.2 million. Enemalta had denied any sug- gestion of wrongdoing in the Streamcast project, saying it had not invested any money in the project and that the data centre costs were the responsibility of Streamcast Technologies. Ene- malta's role was limited to the lease of its property. On its part, Nexia BT and its Capital Knight shareholders had denied receiving any funds from the sale of Streamcast in Ireland. Capital Knight, which owned 400,000 shares in Streamcast's Irish holding, was dissolved in December 2018 soon after the dissolution of Streamcast Tech- nologies Holdings. Nexia had declared that the Irish holding company had no shares in the Malta-based Streamcast Group or partici- pation in the Maltese project – however, energy minister Joe Mizzi had declared in parlia- ment that Enemalta had signed its memorandum of under- standing in November 2017 with another related company Streamcast Technologies Inc [Delaware] for its local subsidi- ary, Streamcast Limited. The Nationalist Party had de- scribed the company as a scam and in February called on Prime Minister Robert Abela to pro- vide the public with a detailed explanation of the project. Former Enemalta CEO Fredrick Azzopardi shakes hands on a €75 million data centre deal with Nimish Pandya Data centre project 'dead' MATTHEW AGIUS A judge rejected an attempt by business- man Pierre Darmanin to obtain the release of over 555,000 untaxed cigarettes and 86kg of tobacco, seized by Customs for nearly €100,400 in unpaid tax. The cigarettes of various brands were seized aboard the ship Crystal Starlight, which was stopped by the AFM in Decem- ber 2011 in what Customs described as "very suspicious circumstances." A search of the vessel returned a substantial amount of un- taxed cigarettes and loose tobacco and it was escorted to the Grand Harbour to waiting Customs officers. The Customs Ordinance provides that the means of transport used in smuggling must be seized. But Darmanin contested the sei- zure of the cigarettes, claiming the cigarettes had been found in shipping containers float- ing around 250 nautical miles off Malta, by fishermen trying to catch tuna. He argued that as he was not the owner of the Crystal Starlight, the objects seized did not belong to him. Darmanin added, however, that there was "no illicit activity" and so the ob- jects should not have been confiscated. The irony was not lost on the Director Gen- eral of Customs, who argued that in view of the fact the Darmanin had claimed that he was not the owner of the vessel, he should explain what his juridical interest was in the action for the release. Indeed, the case was filed in Darmanin's personal capacity, but the Crystal Starlight belonged to Darmanin Fisheries Limited – a company of which the plaintiff was both sole director and majority shareholder. "Once the argument of the plaintiff was that the ship and confiscated tobacco weren't his, the defence is correct in saying that as a private individual, he has no juridical interest in im- pugning the confiscation," the court said. But Darmanin had personally put himself forward as the owner and captain of the ves- sel and had signed the customs declaration on the day the items were seized. The court noted that there was no Indonesian captain on board, as he had claimed, but only Dar- manin and another Maltese man said the court. The court found the seizure was manda- tory and Darmanin had no discretion as to whether or not to seize the subjects of the breach of customs law. "Above all, the Court finds the version of events described by the plaintiff about the finding of the objects as neither credible nor truthful." For these rea- sons, the rejected Darmanin's requests. Darmanin had been placed under the spot- light more recently by Italian newspaper La Repubblica, claiming he had called Daphne Caruana Galizia on a 2016 story concerning a boat of his implicated in a human traf- ficking investigation. The newspaper said he had called Caruana Galizia demanding a correction, and then called economy minis- ter Chris Cardona and right after, Alfred De- giorgio 'il-Fulu' – one of the triggermen in her assassination. But that report was directly contradicted by the Malta Independent on Sunday, which cited its own sources close to the investiga- tion saying the call to Cardona did not take place – instead insisting that it was Caruana Galizia who called Darmanin, who right af- ter made a call to George Degiorgio and his brother Alfred. They said that investigators had found regular contacts between Darma- nin and the Degiorgios. Smuggled tobacco not his, but fisherman still wanted it back Pierre Darmanin