Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1525930
3 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 28 AUGUST 2024 NEWS MATTHEW AGIUS magius@mediatoday.com.mt MINISTRY FOR TRANSPORT, INFRASTRUCTURE AND PUBLIC WORKS No ce by the Commission for the Elec on of Members on the Inġiniera Board With reference to no ces published and posted to all registered Engineers on 2nd August, 2024, the Commission for the Elec on of Members on the Inġiniera Board would like to inform that a er the closing of the period for submissions of objec ons and withdrawals, the final list of nomina ons is as follows: Electrical Engineering Stream Inġ Samuel Bonanno ID 1188M Inġ Arthur Lawrence Ciantar ID 702162M Inġ Ryan Grix ID 028191M Mechanical Engineering Stream: Inġ Meriel-Ann Borg ID 374784M Inġ Simon Scicluna ID 214374M Inġ Ramon Tabone ID 492176M All Engineers registered in the list published in the Government Gazze e of 26 th April, 2024, are eligible to vote. The voter must mark a cross in the box on the ballot paper next to the name of not more than three (3) candidates; The cross cannot be made outside of the boxes as otherwise it would render the vote invalid. There cannot be three preferences from the same engineering stream and there has to be at least one vote from each stream in order for the vote to be considered valid. Vo ng shall take place on Monday the 2nd September 2024 from 2.00pm ll 7.00pm at Project House, Level -1, Ministry for Transport, Infrastructure and Public Works, Francesco Buonamici Street, Floriana. In order to be able to vote, every Engineer must present their ID Card or any other official iden ty document having a photo. Anyone without a means of a photographic iden fica on will not be allowed to vote. Coun ng of votes shall take place immediately upon closure of the poll on Monday, 2nd September, 2024. CHRISTIAN Borg of No De- posit Cars infamy, his girlfriend Monique Mizzi, and company di- rector Joe Camenzuli have been formally accused, alongside a num- ber of companies, of defrauding "millions" in VAT and other taxes. They are charged alongside companies Princess Construction Ltd, Princess Holdings Ltd, Prin- cess Operations Ltd, Zing Rental Ltd, No Deposit Cars Ltd and Li- on Funding Ltd. Borg, 31, and Mizzi, 26, appeared in the dock, assisted by Lawyers Stephen Tonna Lowell, Albert Zerafa, and Ana Thomas. Also in the dock was Joe Camenzuli, in representation of the companies. Police Inspectors Tonjoe Farru- gia and Robert Azzopardi, assisted by prosecutors Francesco Refalo, Rebekah Spiteri, and Mauro Abe- la from the Office of the Attorney General, charged the defendants with money laundering and crimi- nal conspiracy. Borg and the com- panies were further charged with defrauding the Tax Commission- er, making fraudulent gain to the detriment of the Government of Malta, false accounting and other fraud-related offences. Police Inspector Tonjoe Farrugia explained that the charges were issued following an investigation into VAT fraud and tax evasion by Borg, both in his personal capacity as well as a number of companies that Borg was either a director or shareholder of. The police had first been asked to investigate by the VAT depart- ment, he said, due to "indications that Borg was filing false invoices for hundreds of thousands of eu- ros" on which he was receiving VAT refunds as they had been classed as expenses. There was al- so an element of money launder- ing, added the inspector. Cross-examined by Tonna Low- ell, inspector Farrugia confirmed that a magisterial inquiry had been concluded and arrest war- rants had been issued as a result. The lawyer challenged the infor- mation on the basis of which the arrests had been made, citing dis- crepancies between the amounts noted by auditors. Inspector Farrugia clarified that discrepancies were only for re- cords pertaining to financial re- cords for one of the years under examination, but that the audit had been conducted over records for many more years than that. The Inspector confirmed that the investigation was still ongoing, which led Tonna Lowell to ask why the defendants had been arraigned today "when the case could be re- solved administratively." "How can financial crimes be re- solved administratively?" replied the inspector. "Our investigation concluded that millions had been defrauded from the VAT depart- ment." Inspector Farrugia insisted that, if anything, only part of the issue could be resolved administratively. The defence lawyer suggested that there were "other million euro fraud cases, but this man happens to be named Christian Borg." The prosecution requested a freezing order over all of the de- fendants' assets, in view of the money laundering charges. The prosecution said that a specific amount to be frozen would be sub- mitted within 90 days. Tonna Lowell acknowledged that the court's hands are tied once the prosecution requests a freezing or- der, but said that negotiations had been ongoing for some time. Now that a freezing order over all the assets for at least 90 days was going to be issued, "everything was going to go to pot." This measure would also overlap other, similar, court orders that were already in place in connection with other proceed- ings, the lawyer pointed out. The defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges and requested bail, which was objected to by the prosecution. "This investigation has been on- going for several years. It did not start yesterday," submitted Refa- lo. Amongst the evidence that the court would eventually be hear- ing is "testimony from a number of civilians who had assisted Mr. Borg in the commission of these crimes," said the prosecutor, warning that there was a risk of evidence being lost if the witnesses were to be approached. Not all of the civilian witnesses had testified during the inquiry, added the prosecutor. "Here you have VAT fraud, where a num- ber of receipts had been issued and VAT should not have been claimed by the defendants." "We don't object to bail for noth- ing," Refalo added. "This is impor- tant to protect the proceedings." Tonna Lowell asked whether the people who were mentioned as having assisted Borg would al- so face charges, or be pardoned, pointing out that otherwise they would be precluded from testify- ing. "When we say assisted, we mean that they had done so unknowing- ly." clarified the prosecutor. The defence lawyer argued that Borg and Mizzi had necessarily been aware that they were under investigation "for months if not years," telling the court that Borg had been under bail conditions for that time and had "never breached them." "Borg and Mizzi had all the time in the world to tamper with the evidence, but they did not. The prosecution is objecting on the grounds of a phantom fear that ex- ists only on paper," said the lawyer, adding that Mizzi also had a young son and had never been in trouble with the law before. After retiring to chambers to deliberate on the bail request, the court returned to the courtroom to uphold the bail requests, in view of the fact that the evidence was al- ready preserved by the inquiry. Mizzi's bail was secured by a €15,000 deposit a €40,000 personal guarantee, while Borg was ordered to deposit €35,000 and provide a €60,000 personal guarantee as bail security. Christian Borg back in court on 'multimillion' fraud, tax evasion, money laundering charges Christian Borg