Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1464865
NEWS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 17 APRIL 2022 5 EUROPA EXPERIENCE VALLETTA e European Parliament is looking for premises, for sale or to rent, to house a multimedia space open to visitors in Valletta. e exhibition space should be located in an area with high pedestrian footfall in the city centre. e estimated area required is approximately 750 m2, with a minimum of 80 m2 on the ground floor. Interested property owners and/or their representatives, including real estate agencies and property developers, are invited to submit their details by 02 May 2022 by email marked 'Valetta prospecting' to the following address: inlo.ueepi@europarl.europa.eu in Malta between the spring of 2014 and the summer of 2015, from ships chartered by Gor- don Debono. A copy of a Banif Bank state- ment for Oceano Blu Trad- ing Ltd, a company linked to Darren Debono and based at his San Gwann address, shows that from 18 June to 22 July 2015, Kolmar made 11 transfers totalling over $11 million. Oceano Blu Trading was administered by the Sicil- ian Nicola Orazio Romeo, who is also indicted over fuel smug- gling in Sicily. From October 2012 to De- cember 2015, Kolmar was the exclusive leaser of Ras Hanzir's eight fuel tanks; from July to December 2015, Kolmar also occupied all five fuel tanks at the Has Saptan underground storage near Malta Airport. Using data from the auto- matic identification systems (AIS) of the ships Amazigh F, Ruta and Selay - all chartered by Darren and Gordon Debono - the report finds shocking re- sults: from 27 May 2014 to 18 July 2015, the three ships of- floaded some 50,000 MT of marine gasoil 22 times at Ras Hanzir (19) and Has Saptan (3), during the time Kolmar leased these storage units. And the data between the ships' mooring at the dolphins on nine dates between 15 June and 17 July 2015, overlaps the same days between 18 June and 22 July 2015 when Kolmar transferred its €11 million in payments to Oceano Blu Trad- ing. Today it is known that the smuggled oil from Libya was being passed off to the Mal- tese authorities, chiefly the Customs Department, us- ing fraudulent certificates of origin from Fahmi Slim's com- pany Tiuboda Oil Refining Company: they were accepted from Kolmar by the Maltese authorities without batting an eyelid. The oil was then sold either out at sea from Kolmar's sup- ply barges, but also in Europe: by paying duties and other tax- es, Kolmar was free to blend the fuel with European prod- ucts, to then sell it in Europe as an EU product. For their part, Maltese Cus- toms have insisted that since the imported fuel was refined and not crude oil, it was at the time legal to import to Malta. mvella@mediatoday.com.mt 2016: Operation Dirty Oil At the time when the transfers were made by Kolmar to Oceano Blu Trading in 2015, neither the UN experts nor the Italian investigators had the Ben Khalifa-Debono network in their sights. Well after 2013, Lib- yan prime ministers who visited Malta often complained publicly that large quantities of smuggled fuel were be- ing diverted to the is- land. In February 2015, UN experts called on the Se- curity Council to tackle the issue of fuel smug- gling, after providing it with information of illicit ship-to-ship transfers from the Ruta, one of Gordon Debono's tank- ers. It was only in October 2017 that the Debonos were arrested by Italian police and placed un- der house arrest; Fahmi Slim had been arrested a month earlier in Libya after losing the protec- tion of the powerful Ali al Gatrani, the chair of the economic commit- tee of the Libyan House of Representatives. Russia had also blocked a Maltese attempt at placing oil smuggling suspects Darren Debono and Gordon Debono on a United Nations sanc- tions list, with a last-min- ute veto on a Security Council designation. In the strong-worded des- ignations, the Maltese government said the two men had "consistently attempted to undermine the peace, stability, and security of Libya" with their involvement in the oil smuggling crime ring. Darren Debono held meetings with a naval attaché from the United States embassy in Malta in a bid to have sanc- tions on his ships and other assets lifted by the United States' Office of Foreign Assets Control. In an affidavit, Debono revealed that the Amer- icans asked him about former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and for- mer chief of staff Keith Schembri, in exchange for lifting US sanctions on him. Both the gov- ernment of Malta and the United States issued an unprecedented state- ment to hit out at the al- legations. Today it is known that the smuggled crude oil from Libya was being passed off to the Maltese authorities, chiefly the Customs Department,using fraudulent certificates of origin from Fahmi Slim's company Tiuboda Oil Refining Company. For their part, Maltese Customs have insisted that since the imported fuel was refined and not crude oil, it was at the time legal to import to Malta. The oil was then sold either out at sea from Kolmar's supply barges, but also in Europe: by paying duties and other taxes, Kolmar was free to blend the fuel with European products, to then sell it in Europe as an EU product.