Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1529778
14 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 24 NOVEMBER 2024 NEWS MATTHEW VELLA mvella@mediatoday.com.mt Court halves costs for More Supermarket's A Court of Appeal has halved the legal costs borne by two defendants who claimed to be owed €3.5 million from the defunct More Supermarkets chain. The supermarket chain be- came national news in 2014 when former owner Ryan Schembri fled Malta leaving be- hind millions in debt. Schembri is still in prison while waiting to face charges for fraud. Effectively this most recent court decision confirms one of the more mysterious aspects of the supermarket chain – crimi- nal suspects like Adrian Agius, currently in jail awaiting trial for the murder of a More Su- permarkets lender, had a hid- den interest in the operation's cash flow. Right before Schembri fled Malta, it was another of his creditors – Darren Casha – who stepped in to take over the chain. Casha, of the Medasia restaurants, had himself loaned Schembri at least €5.7 million, before taking over the entire supermarket operation for just €94,000 in 2014. But months later, Casha was fending off the pretensions of two men, Alex Farrugia and Ed- mond Mugliette, who claimed they were owed €3.5 million by Ryan Schembri. They claimed they had a con- stitution of debt which they signed with Schembri, but al- so the director of the More Ħamrun outlet – Adrian Agi- us 'tal-Maksar', the man ac- cused of ordering the murder of More Supermarkets lender, lawyer Carmel Chircop; and whose brother Robert Agius and associate Jamie Vella stand accused of supplying the bomb that killed Daphne Caruana Galizia. Casha challenged their claims, leading to a magistrate to re- quest an FIAU investigation into the share transfer of the five More outlets to Casha, and into the alleged debt claimed by Farrugia and Mugliette. The defendants' claims that there was a €300,000 VAT refund ruse were also referred to the Tax Commissioner and Police Commissioner for action. The notary who sat in for the false constitution of debt, Claire Camilleri, was also referred to the Notarial Council to exam- ine her role in facilitating the constitution of debt. Appeals Court decision The Court of Appeal last week partially upheld Farrugia's and Mugliette's appeal regarding costs borne on the first case, decreeing they would be liable in equal parts with the defend- ant company Cassar & Schem- bri Marketing (CSM), which is being liquidated. CSM was the company which financed the products on sale inside the More chain. The first court had found that both Schembri and Adrian Agius, as one of the supermar- ket directors, had fraudulently constructed the €3.5 million constitution of debt, by fabri- cating the claim of having bor- rowed money from Farrugia and Mugliette. Farrugia pleaded with the Court of Appeal that he too had been a victim of Ryan Schembri's fraudulent actions, and queried why Adrian Agius had not been made to pay any legal costs. The Court of Appeal ulti- mately upheld Casha's original challenge to the false debt con- stitution, finding that Schem- bri had committed fraud, or- dering the rescission of the debt agreement and the cancel- lation of the general hypothec and promissory note associated with it. Mysterious debt ruse As the new owner of five of the six More Supermarkets outlets, Darren Casha had challenged the €3.5 million claim from Mugliette and Far- rugia, accusing Schembri of conspiring with 'Maksar' gang suspect Adrian Agius to bleed the company dry with the bo- gus debt claim. He accused Schembri and Agius of roping in Mugliette, who acquired the remnants of media house WE Media, and undergarments retailer Alex Farrugia to create a consti- tution of debt for €2 million and €1.5 million respectively, without having the authori- ty to represent the business which he had already taken over. Crucially, the two straw- men could not identify how they had procured the money they had lent out and where it had been spent on. "This was Schembri's ruse, and Mugliette and Farrugia are involved with him in a bid to take from More Supermarkets something they are not entitled to," Casha told the court. Casha must have been aware of Schembri's mounting debts before absconding in 2014. He was acting as a guaran- tor of enormous loans made out to Schembri, one of them an €8.4 million credit from a Libyan food supplier called Copacabana Investments, or another with developer Adrian Zammit for €2.2 million. These debts too have been the subject of criminal complaints to the police, because they were un- connected to the supermarket business. Then after Casha took over More in May 2014, Schem- bri and Adrian Agius – who had retained the directorship of one More supermarket not transferred to Casha – created the €3.5 million constitution of debt, with Mugliette and Farru- gia appearing as the creditors. Schembri absconds Mugliette's alleged €2 mil- lion loan, from companies he claimed to be their ultimate beneficial owner – All Seas Management and Blue Fi- nance – lacked all proof that any money loaned was used for equipment purchased by Cas- sar & Schembri Marketing. No money, it seems, was ever re- ceived from the company. Farrugia claimed he had met a mysterious Indian entrepre- neur named 'Abdul Rahman'