Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1393937
3 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 18 JULY 2021 NEWS Enemalta oil scandal Accused: corruption, trading in influence Accused: money laundering Accused: corruption, bribery In January 2013, MaltaToday broke the story that George Farrugia, an important of lubricants, had channelled payments from Trafigura to Frank Sammut, a consultant to Tancred Tabone at the Malta Oil Bunkering Corporation, for the supply of oil to Enemalta, the state utility chaired by Tabone, a political appointee. The Nationalist administration pardoned Farrugia to turn State's evidence The police issued charges right away against Tancred Tabone, the Enemalta chairman and then president of the Chamber of Commerce, and petrochemist Frank Sammut, who at one point worked by Tabone's side at the MOBC and was then kept on as a consultant. George Farrugia testified he had always given the two men regular payments as part of their secret business arrangement Virtù Group boss Francis Portelli (left) and Cassar Ship Repair boss Anthony Cassar (right) had a company with Tabone, Island Bunker Oils, now rebranded to Valletta Bunkers. They remain in business and even with charges issued against Portelli, whose company Virtu also issued a €25 million bond with the disclaimer that he is still party in the criminal inquiry in cour George Farrugia claimed he paid some Lm40,000 to former Enemalta CFO Tarcisio Mifsud (left) and petroluem chief Alfred Mallia, now deceased. die, including Tarcisio Mifsud?" The Court ordered that pro- ceedings against Mifsud be closed within four months. Mifsud had been charged in court by Angelo Gafà, now Commissioner of Police, who after Labour's election in 2013 was placed inside the Malta Se- curity Service. The prosecution alleges that Mifsud received commissions on oil tenders giv- en to French oil company Total and split the kickbacks with the late Alfred Mallia, between 1998 and 2003. Mifsud retired from Enemalta in October 2003. George Farrugia – the local agent of Total, granted a pres- idential pardon in return for information on the oil scandal after he was outed by Malta- Today in its reports – told po- lice his relationship with Mallia started in connection with oil storage at Ħas-Saptan. Mallia facilitated a storage agreement, in return for a 'commission'. In 1999, Enemalta tapped into Total's 20,000 tonnes of gasoil stored at Ħas-Saptan, when a port workers strike that same year left Enemalta's oil reserves running low. In 2000, Mallia was injured in a traffic accident; when Far- rugia visited him in hospital, Mallia told him to speak to Tar- cisio Mifsud. Farrugia claims he was told that Mifsud had to get "what Alfred Mallia used to get", and from then on started paying him on every consign- ment. Mifsud's lawyer is Edward Gatt. Money laundering case Also pending in court is the money laundering case against Portelli and Cassar: a judge has already ruled that the Attorney General had breached the fun- damental human rights of the two men by delaying their case for over six years and ordered the prosecution to close its ev- idence by the end of 2019. The two men are being charged for their role as directors in Is- land Bunker Oils and its subsid- iaries Eldaren Shipping, Oars- man Maritime, Anchor Oils, FP Holdings, AOH Ltd, Gringrams Holdings, Island Oils Holdings and Anchor Bay Maritime, for having corrupted former Ene- malta chairman Tancred Tab- one and Frank Sammut, the former chief executive of Med- iterranean Offshore Bunkering Company Limited (MOBC), be- tween the years 2002 and 2005. Portelli and Cassar were al- so charged with complicity to trading in influence in public tenders and money laundering. Although proceedings began with great momentum, this soon dwindled and no progress was registered in the case for six whole years. Between 2015 and 2019, 22 sittings were held in which practically nothing was done, after which the prosecu- tion declared in no uncertain terms that it was not going to declare its evidence closed be- fore Frank Sammut testified. The end result was that the case has been stuck for six years. Letters rogatory to Swiss pros- ecutors, where the accused used Swiss banks to hide their trans- actions, had taken an inexplica- ble 11 months to be sent. Judge Joseph Zammit McKeon had found a violation of the right to a fair hearing. "It is most clear and manifest that the rea- sons for the delay were due to shortcomings by the defendant (AG) and the way in which the prosecution of the applicants is being conducted. It does not emerge that the delays were due to the actions of the plaintiffs. Neither of the court." mvella@mediatoday.com.mt