Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1342444
16 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 21 FEBRUARY 2021 NEWS Sliema sponsor 'offended' by Dar tal-Providenza due diligence THE man who pledged a €500,000 dona- tion to Dar tal-Providenza refused to co- operate with auditors in a due diligence ex- ercise requested by the home, MaltaToday has learnt. Fisal Abdullah Alokla, the chairperson of the Tunisian Catco Group, was "offended" by the audit firm's requests to provide it with details of his personal wealth and the company's workings, according to former Sliema president Jeffrey Farrugia. Catco's pledged donation – unprecedent- ed in its amount for such telethons – was presented by former Nationalist Party lead- er Adrian Delia during a televised fundrais- ing event on New Year's Day. The surprise donation stole headlines. Subsequently, Dar tal-Providenza said it would carry out an audit to verify the source of funds and appointed RSM Malta to carry out the due diligence exercise. But correspondence seen by MaltaToday shows that Alokla refused to comply with the audit firm's standard due diligence re- quests, a move that prompted Dar tal-Prov- idenza to refuse the donation. Catco Group was roped in as a sponsor for Premier League football club Sliema Wanderers last summer by Jeffrey Farrugia, known as il-Vinċ. Farrugia was made president of the club in August on the strength of the promised lu- crative sponsorship that would have trans- formed the team. No money made it to the club and play- er wages remained unpaid, a situation that prompted an internal revolt after the lucra- tive donation to Dar tal-Providenza in Jan- uary was announced. Turmoil at the club led to Farrugia resign- ing his post and the club is today holding an extraordinary general meeting to appoint a new president. Speaking to MaltaToday, Farrugia said Alokla was offended by the audit firm's probing questions. In an email seen by this newspaper, Alokla said that he was "aware that Malta is grey- listed", but he would "not be paying for it". As part of the auditing process, RSM re- quested Catco Group's structure and or- ganisation chart, identifying all UBOs and directors as well as a declaration including a list of all the companies associated with the chairman. It also asked for details of the bank account and the entity from which the proposed do- nation will be paid. Copies of personal bank statements of the last 12 months and audit- ed fiscal statements were also requested. The requests irked Alokla, and Farru- gia claimed the auditors went "overboard" for a "well-intentioned" donation. "They shouldn't have approached him in this way," Farrugia said. Farrugia said that the Catco Group chief had already been subjected to an audit initiated by the Sliema club when he was signed on as one of their main sponsors last year. Asked how Alokla became interested in Maltese football, the former Sliema presi- dent said he got fed up of the Saudi league where he had an interest. "When I told him that the budget for a championship win- ning team in Malta is around €5 million, he got on board," Farrugia said. MaltaToday recently revealed that the company had promised Sliema Wanderers a €25 million investment over five years, something Farrugia confirmed. Farrugia said that he had been put in contact with Catco through a friend of his partner. "I had spoken with Keith Perry [his predecessor at Sliema], and told him we need to do something different to the club," Farrugia said. Alokla first started eyeing Malta when he was planning to invest at the former Flower Power site in Ta' Qali. MaltaToday under- stands the company was hoping to build an amusement park. "I suggested he look into the Flower Power site, because he wanted to do something in the tourism industry," Farrugia said. But despite the high-flying promises to- wards the football club, Catco failed to pass on any cash. Farrugia said the problem was with Maltese banks that refused to open a bank account in order for funds to be trans- ferred to the club. Former honorary vice-president Keith Perry confirmed Farrugia's statement, saying they had visited a number of local banks, but all had refused. The Catco Group logo has disappeared from the Sliema Wanderers livery, an in- dication of the club's intention to move on from the false hope created by high-flying promises. But Farrugia insisted he was still com- mitted to Sliema Wanderers: "We have managed to take a club which was battling relegation to a club which claimed the top spot during the earlier part of the season… If there are doubts about Catco Group, why are we still speaking every day? Why didn't he [Alokla] just leave?" Whether club members share Farrugia's enthusiasm for a sponsor that had prob- lems to convince banks to open an account, is another matter altogether. Former Sliema Wanderers president Jeffrey Farrugia speaks to Karl Azzopardi about the Catco Group, its chairman and the promise of millions in sponsorship money that did not materialise Jeffrey Farrugia