Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1450614
NEWS 9 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 13 FEBRUARY 2022 Tyson Grech outside the MGM Grand on 7 October, 2018, the day of the Nurmagomedov-McGregor fight. The Bentley is the same car the trio hired for a drive just days earlier (below) as seen in the photo dated 5 October 2018, with Gaerty at the wheel stated publicly. I always keep separate my personal life from my work and treat everyone the same when it comes to taking decisions. I have always acted strictly in accordance with the law and department policy and procedures," Gaerty told this newspaper. Gaerty was also asked wheth- er he saw it fit to investigate the tax affairs of Borg, given that up until December 2021 the accounts for Princess Holdings had never been filed. Now they are shown to have accumulated €22 million in losses. "As you know I cannot pro- vide any tax information due to confidentiality. "I can state that the depart- ment always took full action in cases where taxpayers are not compliant with the law. In fact it is always up to the Tax Com- pliance department to initiate tax investigations, that is, to decide who to audit. I never get involved as to who they decide to audit – there is a special unit which decides who to audit," Gaerty told MaltaToday. Gaerty also said that as Com- missioner for Revenue, it did not mean that he got involved or influenced the decisions tak- en by separate units within the department. "Those decisions are left en- tirely to the directors of the specific units. In fact before I was appointed Commissioner there was a procedure whereby the Commissioner used to ap- prove cases for investigations carried out by providing a dele- gation. I immediately removed this procedure when I was ap- pointed and left such decisions entirely in the hands of the unit head." Gaerty stepped down in Jan- uary after nearly 10 years in office, and was replaced by Jo- seph Caruana, the permanent secretary at Ian Borg's trans- port ministry. Gaerty took up an advisory role on fiscal policy matters within the finance ministry. Shortcomings in the way tax crimes are uncovered were highlighted as one of the lead- ing reasons Malta was last year placed on the so-called greylist of untrustworthy financial ju- risdictions by the Financial Ac- ton Task Force (FATF). Gaerty had already been in the headlines in the past, ques- tioned by the police in 2020 as part of an investigation into trading in influence involving Yorgen Fenech, who stands accused of conspiring to mur- der Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2017. An investigation in- to a 2014 message exchange between Gaerty and Fenech was closed with no charges brought. THE startling aspect of Chris- tian Borg's Princess Hold- ings, one of his main compa- nies, is how it amassed €22 million in accumulated loss- es between 2016 and 2020. The accounts seen by Mal- taToday show an adverse audit opinion for a company which is entirely support by Borg, as shareholder, and where assets are funded mainly by creditors. Since 2016, revenue climbed from just €10,000 to €988,000 in 2019, and then €254,000 in 2020. But the company's expens- es, its cost of sales, climb from €2.9 million in 2017 to €7.2 million in 2020. The Princess Holdings ac- counts, filed only with the regulator at the beginning of January 2022, reveal a com- pany backed by interest-free loans from its shareholder – €3.6 million – and €26 mil- lion from creditors. The accounts show that the company's assets generate little revenue, and that if creditors call in what they are owed, there will be lit- tle to liquidate to pay them back. The accounts also suggest that the company operates without a bank account, re- sulting negative equity with losses year by year. In the meantime, Princess Holdings seems to have booked €4 million in receiv- able VAT for 2020, over and above €2.7 million in 2019, €1.4 million in 2018, and €695,000 in 2017. Borg is also sole share- holder in Princess Construc- tion, which has €11 million in property acquisitions, ac- cording to its accounts. His other company No Deposit Cars Malta is al- so backed by sharehold- ers loans of €8.8 million in 2020, with some €10.8 mil- lion in second-hand vehi- cles registered as inventory. Princess Holdings