Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1305625
MATTHEW VELLA THE oil trader George Farrugia used a Swiss bank account as a slush fund to pay off Enemal- ta officials, unbeknownst to his brothers and business partners. But Farrugia, granted a presi- dential pardon in February 2013 to give evidence in a kickbacks scandal that rocked the state utility Enemalta at the time, has been unable to show a court of law evidence of his Swiss trans- actions. Farrugia gave evidence on 14 October in a criminal case in- stituted against his five broth- ers, all principals of the Johns Group, who are themselves ac- cused of knowing of their broth- er's kickbacks system. The case was instituted in 2014, a year after MaltaToday broke the Enemalta scandal – an evi- dence-based reveal of kickbacks paid by Farrugia to former En- emalta chairman Tancred Tab- one and business partner Frank Sammut. Both men, and their two partners Francis Portelli and Anthony Cassar, were later charged. The case is ongoing. Farrugia was then granted a pardon to turn State's evidence. But he had been previously sued in court by his brothers, for having siphoned off profits from the family business on oil procurement, into a Swiss bank account which he also used for cash bribes. In a sitting held earlier this month, Farrugia was asked by the defence to provide evidence of his claim, made in court back in 2015, of having paid some $500,000 to Tancred Tabone and Frank Sammut. In court, the defence point- edly suggested to Farrugia he admit to running a secret slush fund that funnelled profits from family company Power Plan, to Aikon, his own company. "Your company Aikon was used to park this cash – you claim, on your brothers' behalf – yet in seven years since setting it up you never had the chance of telling them about it," lawyer Steven Farrugia Sacco told Far- rugia. The oil trader set up his com- pany Aikon's bank account at the Edmond de Rothschild bank in Geneva some time in 2004; but his brothers sued him in 2010 for having funnelled cash from Power Plan into his Swiss bank account, at their detri- ment. "What you did was to cre- ate Aikon, and the money that came in started in part going to Power Plan and in part to Ai- kon. But you were its sole bene- ficiary," Farrugia Sacco said. To this, Farrugia claimed that his brothers were aware that Aikon was being used as a slush fund for officials such as then Enemalta chairman Tancred Tabone. "They knew of the payments and of arrangements, which I had told them about." Farrugia admitted he would split procurement quotations between Power Plan and Aikon, and that his brothers were un- aware of how he organised this system. "Aikon was needed for local payments and for foreign traders... the payments were for contracts that were coming to Power Plan... the reason for the company was to have cash to spread around." Farrugia claimed he had no ac- cess to his Swiss bank account, after first presenting to the court a brochure from the bank itself as 'evidence' of his account's activities. The defence has de- manded he produce a statement of activity in court. "Had I not paid out that cash we would have not got any con- tracts," Farrugia told the court. "I am saying the truth," he said, before confirming once again having paid out a cool $20,000 in cash to Tancred Tabone in one event at a Swiss hotel. Farrugia has previously said that Tabone was still asking him for cash payments after his tenure at Enemalta was over in 2005. "He would say that he still had power inside Enemalta." The arraigned in the case are: Antonio Farrugia; Gaetano Farrugia; Raymond Farrugia; Saviour Farrugia; and Emanuel Farrugia, 59. All are pleading not guilty to charges of having known that their brother had been bribing Enemalta officials to secure oil contracts. They are directors and share- holders of Johns Group and Power Plan Limited, the compa- ny through which George Farru- gia used to deal in the procure- ment of oil. Frank Sammut, who sat on the Enemalta fuel procurement committee, was allegedly paid bogus consultancy fees which he deposited in an HSBC account in Lugano, Switzerland. Farrugia has also recounted in detail how he was regular- ly bribing Alfred Mallia, then head of the Enemalta petrole- um division, Tancred Tabone, then chairman of Enemalta, and Sammut, who was chief execu- tive of the Mediterranean Off- shore Bunkering Company. Despite the charges against them, many of the protagonists in the Enemalta oil scandal are still actively trading. Their for- mer bunkering operation has been renamed Valletta Bunkers and is now run by representa- tives and relatives of the Tab- one-Portelli-Cassar business groups or families. Their interests are further con- solidated in the company Vallet- ta Petroleum Holdings, whose shares are held by Tabone's Al- ta Investments, Portelli's Virtu Holdings, and Cassar's Cassar Marine Services. 4 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 1 NOVEMBER 2020 NEWS ENEMALTA OIL SCANDAL Slush fund was hidden from businessmen George Farrugia: the man who bribed Enemalta officials was given a presidential pardon in 2013, but the accused are still carrying out their oil bunkering business and the police then charged Farrugia's brothers after the trader claimed they knew of his secret slush fund