Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1510125
2 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 22 OCTOBER 2023 NEWS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The energy company called ENV Energy Solutions was set up in June 2018 and counts as its on- ly shareholder, Bonnici Brothers. According to the description on its website, ENV is engaged in pe- troleum infrastructure construc- tion, maintenance and services, product distribution and new energy. Farrugia is the company's CEO. The connection between Bon- nici Brothers and Farrugia has raised eyebrows in industry circles given the latter's past involvement as an oil broker who bribed Ene- malta officials to secure fuel oil contracts. Farrugia had been giv- en a presidential pardon to tell all. Bonnici Brothers and French re- cycling firm Paprec were selected as the preferred bidder on 13 Oc- tober for Wasteserv's incinerator project in Magħtab. The project is one of the largest ever public infra- structure contracts to be awarded and the winning consortium was selected after submitting the low- est bid at €600 million. It is unclear what role Farrugia may have played in the winning consortium's bid for the Magħtab incinerator tender. Bonnici Brothers denies Farrugia involved in incinerator project However, in comments to Mal- taToday, Bonnici Brothers CEO Gilbert Bonnici denied Farrugia was involved in any way in the project. "Neither Mr George Farrugia nor ENV Solutions Ltd (ENV) are, or were, in any manner in- volved in the [incinerator] tender in question. Indeed, ENV operates within a sector which has abso- lutely nothing to do with this pro- ject and hence could have never been involved in the same," Bon- nici said. He said the information received by MaltaToday was incorrect and implied it was "presumably intended to unduly influence a competitive process which is still ongoing". Bonnici insisted Farrugia will also play no future role in the in- cinerator project. "Not only did Mr Farrugia play no role in the Magħtab incinerator bid, but will also not be involved in the project should the tender be definitely awarded as recommended." No reply on due diligence However, Bonnici did not reply Bonnici Brothers denies Farrugia involvement IN 2013, trader George Farrugia shot to national notoriety after MaltaTo- day broke news of the payment of commissions on oil trades for Enemal- ta, on behalf of oil giants like Trafigura or Total – clients of Farrugia. Farrugia's role in enabling these gen- erous commissions led to the arrest of former Enemalta chairman Tancred Tabone, and other business partners – Frank Sammut, Francis Portelli and Anthony Cassar. Ten years later, all are still facing charges of trading in influence or bribery and money laun- dering – yet Farrugia was granted a presidential pardon to cooperate in the investigation. Farrugia was one of several brothers in the John's Group business. He ran a lubcricants subsidiary called Pow- erplan, which had exclusivity agree- ments with Total and Trafigura, which legitimately entitled the company to a commission of $1 per metric tonne of oil sold to Enemalta. In 2010, the Farrugia brothers dis- covered that their own brother was si- phoning off business from Powerplan. They commissioned audit firm FST Consulting to examine the company's computers. E-mails found on the per- sonal computers of George Farrugia and his wife had been addressed to officials from Totsa, Total's Gene- va-based subsidiary, and Trafigura B.V. with attachments of invoices on the letterheads of a secret company, Aikon, and Powerplan. The invoices added up to some $1.56 million for the period 2004 and 2008, and the investigation revealed that Farrugia had siphoned off some $8.6 million (€6.4 million) worth of com- missions from Powerplan to his secret company, which naturally had its own secret Swiss account. Nonetheless, the company declared sales of some €55,000, €49,000 and €24,000 respectively for 2006, 2007 and 2008. The oil trader set up his company Aikon's bank account at the Edmond de Rothschild bank in Geneva some time in 2004; but his brothers sued him in 2010 for having funnelled cash from Powerplan into his Swiss bank account, at their detriment. After MaltaToday broke news of the Enemalta scandal and illegal commis- sions in January 2013, former Ene- malta chairman Tancred Tabone and business partner Frank Sammut, busi- nessmen Francis Portelli and Antho- ny Cassar, were charged in court. The case is still ongoing. But in 2014, police also filed charg- es against Farrugia's five brothers, all principals of the Johns Group, ac- cused of knowing of their brother's kickbacks system. Farrugia claims his brothers were aware that Aikon was being used as a slush fund for officials such as then Enemalta chairman Tan- cred Tabone. "They knew of the pay- ments and of arrangements, which I had told them about." He said he would split procurement quotations between Powerplan and Aikon, and that his brothers were una- ware of how he organised this system. "Aikon was needed for local payments and for foreign traders... the payments were for contracts that were coming to Power Plan... the reason for the company was to have cash to spread around." Frank Sammut, who sat on the En- emalta fuel procurement committee, was allegedly paid bogus consultancy fees which he deposited in an HSBC account in Lugano, Switzerland. Despite the charges against them, many of the protagonists in the Ene- malta oil scandal are still actively trad- ing. Tabone, Portelli and Cassar were partners in a bunkering operation that was later renamed Valletta Bunkers and is now run by their relatives in- stead, and through Valletta Petroleum Holdings, whose shares are held by Tabone's Alta Investments, Portelli's Virtu Holdings, and Cassar's Cassar Marine Services. Who is George Farrugia? In 2013 MaltaToday broke the news of commission payments on oil trades for Enemalta. MATTHEW VELLA gives a rundown of the scandal and the man at the centre of it, George Farrugia. George Farrugia: The man at the centre of the oil scandal in 2013 is involved in an energy company owned by Bonnici Brothers Ltd. Farrugia is CEO of ENV which was set up in 2018.