Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1468438
NEWS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 22 MAY 2022 5 tablishing of an office in Hong Kong, insurance as well as daily allowances for the defendants' alleged trips to Hong Kong to hold meetings with banks. To afford this, the company had needed to borrow money from third parties, securing these loans with guarantees provided by relatives of the company's directors and share- holders. Aydelman, Pelicano, Baldac- chino Romano and Sultana had informed Costa del Sol that the banks had granted the loan fa- cility, as long as the requested payments were made to the four defendants. Curmi's com- pany had paid up. But the promised loan never arrived, with the defendants stringing the plaintiff along for months by giving false hope that the funds would soon be received, continuously fabri- cating fictitious administrative obstacles which were solely intended to gain more time, whilst convincing Costa del Sol that the money really existed. In its court application, Costa del Sol claimed that the defend- ants would regularly threaten the company that halting the application process would re- sult in it losing all the money it had paid so far, as well as the opportunity to obtain the nec- essary loan. "After many attempts and lots of threats from the defend- ants, against their instructions, eventually the plaintiff compa- ny succeeded in establishing contact with the foreign bank which allegedly was supposed to provide the financial facility, and discovered that the bank… had never received any request from the defendants for the loan facility in question." The experts appointed by the company had always insisted that the financing of the pro- ject had been approved and that the money was not arriv- ing due to technical problems which would change from one week to the other." The company claimed that those same experts which it had appointed to safeguard its interests had also been acting in the interests of Eva Aydel- man, to the extent that they would also uphold and corrob- orate every obstacle raised by her. The company said it had eventually been forced to sell off the land it owned to satis- fy its creditors, but had also gathered enough evidence of this mise en scene by the de- fendants, as well as their negli- gence, recklessness and profes- sional shortcomings. The 2018 sworn application was signed by lawyers Charlon Gouder and Joseph Gerada. Lawyer Jonathan Attard, today Minister for Justice, was also listed as joint counsel, although his signature was missing from the court application. The law firm no longer represents Cur- mi. A criminal complaint was al- so filed in December 2016, re- questing the Commissioner of Police to investigate and take action against the defendants, but only Aydelman was ever arraigned. She later absconded whilst on bail. magius@mediatoday.com.mt