Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1473070
NEWS 7 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 13 JULY 2022 Latvian partner, Aviva Kushner, to the stand to testify about his ties to Malta. The woman said that she had met Schembri in Dubai during a job interview. They became a couple and now have two children together, aged 2 and 5, she said. She had relocated the family to Malta from Dubai in order to support Schembri, she said, exhibiting copies of supporting documentation, showing the enrolment of the children in school and that she was gainfully employed. "When we arrived in Malta in 2017, I struggled and had to apply for social benefits." The woman said she hadn't been aware of the details of Schembri's predicament, besides the fact that he had problems in Malta and had left because of them. "We were struggling for money, so the agenda was that we will face the music when it comes. His intention was always to repay all his creditors," she said. "As Ryan's lawyer and a friend of his since childhood, the defence has been cautious in requesting bail for Schem- bri," Montalto said, after the witness stepped off the stand "But three months on from his arraignment, all the origi- nal complainants had testified bar one. During these three months, none of the witnesses have reported any attempts to suborn them, he pointed out. "Besides, now we have a clearer picture of what hap- pened," Montalto said, submitting that it was also clear that the collapse of the business had been instigated by a third party. The only possible offence emerging from the evidence was fraudulent bankruptcy, he said. "Not money launder- ing. He has no family abroad, rather, his family came to Malta for the long haul. Now, I can understand that cred- itors believe that he fled as a millionaire, but the truth is that he left with the clothes on his back and was living in social housing. "He went to live in London. Yes he left Malta, but he didn't try to hide. He surrendered to the EAW as soon as he was notified with it." Schembri was currently residing in accommodation that he was renting from his father, the lawyer said. For the prosecution, Refalo pointed out that Schembri had "travelled halfway around the world in a bid to avoid extradition." There were at least five more witnesses yet to testify, he said, amongst them victims. The magistrate will deliver a decree on bail from cham- bers. The case continues on 12 August during which sit- ting Darren Casha has been ordered to testify. More Supermarket owner Darren Casha KURT SANSONE A former Enemalta official could not recall whether the board he headed had questioned due diligence find- ings on bidders for the gas power station tender nine years ago. Louis Giordimaina, who as CEO headed the project review board in 2013, told parliament's Public Ac- counts Committee on Tuesday that he was not involved in the due dili- gence process. "I based my judgement on the due diligence of bidders carried out by the experts in various evaluation committees," he said when asked about the conclusions of the Nation- al Audit Office that the financial due diligence of bidders did not take into consideration anti-money launder- ing aspects. Opposition MP David Agius asked Giordimaina how nobody from the review board asked about due dili- gence process. "Did you not ask? Or you asked and were ignored and the process continued just the same?" "No, nothing of the sort happened," Giordimaina replied before Labour MP Andy Ellul objected to Agius's style of questioning, accusing him of making an assertion. Agius rephrased his question: "So, nobody challenged these documents presented to you?" Giordimaina insisted he could not recall the details. "They [the evalu- ation committees] used to give us presentations. This happened a long time ago now. We used to seek clari- fications and they used to come back to us with replies but I cannot recall the details." The PAC is probing the findings of an NAO audit on the multi-mil- lion-euro tender awarded to Electro- gas in 2013 for the construction and operation of a gas power station and liquefied natural gas terminal at De- limara. The NAO report concluded in 2018 had raised several concerns over the tendering process, espe- cially how certain conditions were changed halfway through the ten- dering process. Giordimaina insisted that some as- pects of the tender had to change as a result of queries made by the bid- ders, insisting that every change was communicated to all competitors. The project, a key plank of the Labour Party's 2013 electoral man- ifesto, delivered cheaper electricity rates and shifted the production of electricity from heavy fuel oil to the cleaner natural gas. But the project was also mired in controversy. The tender was awarded to Elec- trogas, a consortium made up of Maltese interests, Siemens, Azerbai- jani company Socar and Gasol, amid claims of corruption. Eventually Gasol pulled out of the arrangement because of financial difficulties. One of the shareholders of Electro- gas – Yorgen Fenech – was charged in 2019 with masterminding the as- sassination of Daphne Caruana Gal- izia. Additionally, Fenech also owned a secretive Dubai company, 17 Black, which was listed as a client of two Panama-based companies owned by then energy minister Konrad Mizzi and former office of the prime min- ister chief of staff Keith Schembri. 17 Black had to disburse €2 million yearly to the two Panama companies according to documents leaked from Nexia BT, the financial services firm owned by Brian Tonna, which set up the Panama companies. Giordimaina was testifying in front of the PAC about his role and that of the review board he headed in the tendering project. Giordimaina said it was he who gave the Enemal- ta board the final presentation on which a vote was taken to award the tender to Electrogas. He acknowledged that his pres- entation was based on another presentation given to him by David Galea, the man handpicked by Mizzi to oversee the tendering process. He was also queried by Opposition members on the wide discrepancy in some of the marks awarded to Electrogas and its rival bidder En- deavour but although Giordimaina recalled that the evaluation commit- tee sought answers, he could not re- member what the replies were. Giordimaina explained that Kon- rad Mizzi used to sometimes attend meetings of the evaluation commit- tee as an observer. But he could not explain how minutes presented to the PAC by Enemalta showed that in one particular meeting in April 2013, Mizzi was an active participant, giv- ing members feedback on the time- line of negotiations, the capacity of the new plant and pricing. "Konrad Mizzi used to attend some meetings as an observer. He did give us a brief shortly after the review board was set up but in other meet- ings I don't recall him participating," Giordimaina said. The PAC is chaired by Darren Carabott, a PN MP, and includes David Agius and Graham Bencini as Opposition members, and Andy Ellul, Glen Bedingfield, Alex Muscat and Clayton Bartolo as government members. House Public Accounts Committee Electrogas probe queries inept due diligence of bidders but gets few replies