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15 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 24 NOVEMBER 2024 NEWS Supermarket's bogus creditors in 'Maksar' debt claim at a construction fair in Libya, to which he had travelled with Ryan Schembri. He then be- came a representative of Rah- man, who invested €1 million paid to Schembri's company Cassar & Schembri Marketing. Yet neither a written agree- ment nor a power-of-attorney had been signed or included on the constitution of debt with Schembri. In court, Farrugia claimed that as he got wind of More Supermarket's debt problems, he approached Schembri about securing his position. Schem- bri suggested that he enters a constitution of debt, together with Mugliette. Eventually, the constitution of debt was signed without Schembri even being pres- ent. Instead, it was his father Mario, together with Adrian Agius, who at that point was a registered director of More Ħamrun, who inked the debt agreement. In court, Farrugia's claims were challenged by More Su- permarket's accountant Den- nis Francalanza, disputing the claim that Farrugia – who ran the supermarket's 'Sock Corner' outlet – could have poured in €1.5. million into the enterprise. But Francalanza also said when Schembri left the island, the operation was suddenly taken over by Darren Casha, Ray Camilleri and Adrian Agi- us. Mugliette was also intro- duced to the company as an accountant. Months later in October 2014, two garnishee orders were filed against the compa- ny, one of €1.5 million from Alex Farrugia, and the other of €2 million from Mugliette. Adrian Agius's role It remains unclear what role Adrian Agius had in the run- ning of the More Ħamrun su- permarket. Today, Agius is in prison fac- ing charges of having ordered the murder of lawyer Carmel Chircop, who had loaned a substantial sum, €750,000, to Ryan Schembri. Agius also ap- peared as one of the debtors on the Chircop loan. Further cementing the Agius connection was the fact that both him and Cassar & Schem- bri Marketing were share- holders in the company Inter- AA Holdings, of which Ryan Schembri was a director. When prior to his arrest in 2020, Agius testified in the €3.5 million More debt case, he claimed having had no ef- fective role in the running of the Ħamrun outlet. "I trusted Schembri with eyes shut," he said, suggesting his disinterest in the running of the business he was a director of, was wan- tonly limited. "I passed on my shares to Darren Casha without even collecting a cent, because un- til then I expected that those shares would return once things get back on their feet... I just rested on Ryan's word, because I don't understand anything about supermarkets. Schembri would lead. But I did work from Ryan's office basi- cally. My office was his, and I would hear about things going on." And yet despite this kind of proximity, Agius claimed he was unaware of Schembri's plans for a bond issue with KP- MG, and was easily convinced that More Supermarkets owed the 'unknown' Farrugia and Mugliette €3.5 million. "Schembri told me I had to sign as a guarantor for their debt. In truth this did not suit me... apparently it was money to Ryan for projects he was in- vesting in." Casha's lawyer pointed out to Agius that he had been a shareholder from day one at More Supermarkets, yet right up until the share transfer to Casha, he had no idea of the Mugliette-Farrugia loans. "Look, I didn't know be- cause... I would just hear them talk in the office. I never cared much. My fault really..." Agius replied. The Maksar-More connection As a director for the holding company of the More Supermarkets outlet in Hamrun, Adrian Agius 'tal-Maksar' appeared as a debtor on a contract that took a €750,000 interest-free loan from the lawyer Carmel Chircop in March 2014. Chircop's contract was with Ryan Schembri, then appearing as director of the company Erom Limited. Also appearing as debtors in the contract were Schembri's business partner Etienne Cassar, as well as Adrian Agius: one of the men first arrested by police in December 2017 in connection with the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, and later released on police bail. Together, Schembri and Cassar, and Agius, owned shares in another joint company called InterAA Holdings. The contract suggests that the loan had already taken place, and was constituting the repayment schedule: a €50,000 repayment happening the day of the contract signing, with a further payment expected by 31 March 2014, and a further €50,000 by 30 April 2014. The final €600,000 should have been paid by February 2015. Schembri and Cassar, who together owned Cassar & Schembri Marketing – the company that acquired and supplied foodstuffs to the More Supermarket chain – issued two loan notes to Chircop, personally in their names for the debt. But it was Agius who was guarantor on the debt, presenting as a special hypothec agrand villa property on Engineer Street, Madliena heights. Chircop then exempted the notary, Malcolm Mangion, from carrying out the usual searches on the title and the property guarantee. Three months later, Schembri started transferring his supermarket business to a new investor, the restaurateur Darren Casha, who was then under the impression that the More Supermarkets chain was in excellent financial health. Chircop was killed in the morning of 8 October 2015 as he walked to the Birkirkara garage complex, where he died from four gunshot wounds to his upper body. Six months later, Adrian Agius took recourse to the law courts in a bid to cancel the notarial deed that had locked in his property as guarantee for the €750,000 debt. At first, Chircop's widow refused the claim, insisting Agius himself had informed Chircop "to take his villa in Madliena as repayment for the loan to Erom. If what he now claims is true, [Agius] would have not put the villa up… the business that was to take place with Carmel Chircop never did happen because the agreement was that either Erom or the loan guarantor, pay back the money loaned to them." Neither party ever made it to court to take a stand on the alleged claim. In 2017, the Madliena house was sold for €1.8 million, and in January 2018 the Chircop heirs told the court that an out-of-court settlement had been reached. Clockwise from top left: Ryan Schembri, Darren Casha, Adrian Agius and Carmel Chircop