Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1523374
13 NEWS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 30 JUNE 2024 JAMES DEBONO jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt MATTHEW VELLA mvella@mediatoday.com.mt Pension fraudsters who cost BOV millions are freed Ghaxaq Shopping mall roundabout: TM accepts to limit developers' contribution to 49% Mastermind in Swedish pensions fraud Max Serwin said to be heading for hidden millions and untraceable gold TWO men at the heart of Swe- den's largest pensions fraud crime have been freed from jail – Amer- ican national Mark Bishop and Swedish conman Max Serwin had used the Maltese financial and banking system to incorporate a fraudulent pensions fund that sucked over €250 million in Swed- ish pensions' savings. The imbroglio cost Bank of Val- letta a €26.5 million settlement in 2020 with the Swedish pensions authority, to avoid further litiga- tion on its role as custodian of Fal- con Funds. Falcon Funds was a Swedish private pension run by a Maltese company, but whose investment decisions were vitiated by back- room dealings from its own in- vestment manager, Temple Asset Management. Serwin, under the alias Emil Ing- manson, was the architect of Fal- con Funds, registering it in Malta, but using its pensions savings to invest it in other fraudulent com- panies for his own benefit. He was aided by Temple director Anthony John Farrell, whose Mal- ta firm was shuttered and was then extradited to Sweden to face crim- inal charges. Falcon's Maltese di- rectors Tonio Fenech, the former Nationalist finance minister, and Ian Zammit and Joseph Xuereb wrere handed a two-year ban from the MFSA on holding approved positions; further court action in Malta was filed by BOV against a host of entities involved in siphon- ing off cash from the pension fund. Both Serwin and Bishop are technically liable to pay back $50 million, and interest, in damages for the Falcon Funds fraud. But Bishop has left Sweden al- ready, departing back to his Amer- ican homeland, with a 15-year ban on returning to the Scandinavian country. Serwin has been granted parole, having served two-thirds of his eight-year prison sentence. Prosecutor Jerker Asplund told the Swedish press that millions in cash defrauded from the Falcon Funds pension scheme remain at large. "We can see a lot of money in various places that we cannot access. Whether they go to Max Serwin or not I will leave it unsaid. But there is a lot of money we hav- en't traced." Asplund said that at least €2.3 million is sitting in a Dubai ac- count linked directly to Serwin, but Sweden lacks the necessary agreements to claim the money back from the UAE. Another €1 million is said to have been laundered through the Lux- embourgish fund Haven Sicav, €2 million in gold was retrieved in Zurich, and another €640,000 was found in a Revolut bank account in London. The gold – 6,800 Swiss gold coins and 30 gold bars – is said to have been laundered by an agent for Serwin, who is now fac- ing charges in Stockholm. Swedish authorities so far man- aged to recoup just some €18 mil- lion from the stolen funds. THE Planning board will be meet- ing on 25 July to determine wheth- er the Schembri Barbros group should pay the full cost of a new roundabout next to a proposed shopping mall along Triq tal-Bar- rani. When approving the project in principle through an outline per- mit approved in March, the Plan- ning board had tied the develop- ment to a condition stating that the roundabout junction at the site's access has to be "upgraded and completed prior to the com- mencement of works on the com- mercial hub development" and that "the expenses to the highway upgrading are to be fully borne by the developer." But the Schembri Barbros Group has called on the Planning Author- ity to revise this condition describ- ing it as one which is "not fair and equitable" and one which "does not reflect the transport impact of the approved development". Instead of paying in full for the roundabout the developers are proposing that their financial con- tribution should be capped to re- flect the development's "share of network traffic" which, according to a Traffic Impact Assessment stands at around 22%. The group also proposed that any reference to "highway upgrad- ing" is removed to ensure that the expense is limited to the creation of a new roundabout and does not include other infrastructural ex- penses. In its reply to the group's argu- ment Transport Malta said that while it is willing to accept an adjustment of the financial con- tribution "to better reflect the incremental traffic impact of the proposed development" on the network, the calculation should reflect the share of traffic created by the new shopping mall dur- ing peak hour, which amounts to 49% and not to 22% as proposed Schembri Barbros. Moreover, TM also clarified that the developer's contribution will be limited to works related to the new roundabout and not to any other infrastructural works in the area. The PA will be taking a final de- cision on the request by the shop- ping mall developers on 18 July. But in his report while accepting that the contribution should be limited to the cost of the rounda- bout, the case officer still said that the expenses "are to be fully borne by the developer". According to the approved plans , the retail and leisure complex will be built over three floors on a foot- print of 14,220sq.m. Two levels of underground parking are set to ac- commodate 1,014 parking spaces. Apart from shops, the shopping hub will include anunderground gymnasium and a childcare cen- tre. The upper floor will include food, beverage and retail outlets. The existing Lidl supermarket will be retained and enlarged. The developers are now expected to present a full development ap- plication based on the parameters established in the outline permit. Schembri Barbros Limited is owned by Barbros Group Limited which is owned by Ephriam, An- ton, Carmelo, Franridge and Mary Schembri, Claudine Barbara and Josephine Guntrip. Max Serwin when he was arrested