Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1545750
3 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 8 JULY 2026 NEWS scandal mastermind cleared after of hidden corruption scheme them and my brothers agreed that I could go ahead with this arrangement." When asked by the court to clarify exactly who he spoke to, George insisted: "Regard- ing this whole matter, they all knew. That is to say, we had some board meeting, though I won't remember the date now, but they all knew about this matter." According to George's testi- mony, the arrangement with Mallia involved splitting a stor- age commission paid by Total equally between them. The commission amounted to 12 cents per tonne per month, with George using Power Plan funds to pay Mallia through "pay self" and "pay cash" cheques that required a second signature from his brothers. George claimed that when Mallia was hospitalised follow- ing an accident in 2000, he was directed to deal with Tarcisio Mifsud, Enemalta's Head of Fi- nance, who allegedly told him to hand over Mallia's share di- rectly to him. Tarcisio Mifsud had his acquittal confirmed by the Court of Appeal in 2023, af- ter the court "seriously doubt- ed" George Farrugia's testimo- ny about him. According to George, pay- ments that had previously been intended for Mallia were then redirected to Mifsud, who alleg- edly promised to pass on Mall- ia's share. The court also heard that, around this period, George ex- panded the arrangement be- yond Enemalta to the Medi- terranean Offshore Bunkering Company Limited (MOBC). He began invoicing "consultancy fees" through Power Plan and later through Aikon Limited, a nominee company he set up in 2004. To fund these cash bribes, George testified that he regu- larly drew money from Power Plan's accounts using "pay self" or "pay cash" cheques. Because the company's bank mandate required two signatures, he had to get his brothers to sign off on them. "There would be cheques that I and someone of my broth- ers would sign, where it would come out as 'self' or cash, we would cash it, and I would take him the cash," George told the court. He added that when Power Plan's Ħamrun office was ac- tive, Raymond Farrugia was the most frequent co-signatory, whereas Salvu Farrugia signed most of the cheques when they moved to Qormi. The Swiss accounts According to George, the company's auditor eventually caught on to the irregular cash withdrawals and warned the di- rectors during a board meeting that they could not keep pulling undocumented cash out of the business. George testified that this warning prompted a private discussion among the broth- ers: "These payments could not, that is to say, continue to be made. In fact, there was talk even about whether we were going to continue with that work... I remember even telling them, 'now I will see how I can sort it out.' I remember we had also spoken and there was an agreement that I could take 20% of the income related to the oil business." To bypass the auditor's scru- tiny, George set up a nominee company called Aikon Limit- ed in 2004 and opened a Swiss bank account with Rothschild Bank in Geneva. He admitted to the court that he was not entirely open with his siblings: "I admit that I wasn't transparent enough with my brothers, but what hap- pened was that part of the mon- ey was going in there, and the money from here [Power Plan] was no longer being touched... they knew that people were being paid, and who was being paid. Now, if you know that people are being paid and no money is coming out of Power Plan, it has to be coming from somewhere." The Tancred Tabone years Between 2003 and 2005, George Farrugia testified that the alleged payments contin- ued during the chairmanship of Tancred Tabone at Enemal- ta and MOBC. He claimed that Tabone requested commissions connected to gas oil tenders, and that payments continued until around 2006, when they stopped because no further re- quests were allegedly made. Tancred Tabone flanked by his lawyer, Gianella de Marco during a hearing of the PAC Tancred Tabone flanked by his lawyer, Gianella de Marco during a hearing of the PAC The alleged payments de- scribed by George included; cash payments to Alfred Mall- ia, with George estimating that the total amount shared with Tarcisio Mifsud was around Lm40,000; a 50 per cent com- mission arrangement with Frank Sammut; the SsangYong Korando vehicle allegedly pro- vided to Sammut's son; and pay- ments allegedly made to Tan- cred Tabone, including $20,000 delivered at the Hotel President Wilson in Geneva, a Lm10,000 cheque and a Lm1,000 cheque. George testified that Tabone had allegedly requested money linked to fuel tenders, although these claims remain disputed and have not resulted in a final conviction. 'He was robbing us blind' The five accused brothers ve- hemently denied any knowledge of the bribery, telling the court they had been completely left in the dark by George, whom they trusted implicitly. Emanuel Farrugia testified that he spent his days managing the taxi and chauffeur services and had absolutely nothing to do with the oil business. He recalled that whenever the brothers tried to bring up Power Plan's performance dur- ing their rare meetings, George would shut down the conversa- tion: "George would raise this point, this discussion, that we are always working for nothing here... I asked him how many people were working with us, because I didn't even know... I didn't even know how much a tank of oil sold for, nothing. And he gave no answer, just si- lence." Cathy Farrugia (left) and her husband George (right) meet- ing former prime minister Law- rence Gonzi at Safi. Cathy Far- rugia spent 10 years as Gonzi's secretary when he was legal head at the Mizzi Organisation. The Farrugia brothers blame George and his wife for siphon- ing company funds to finance their lavish lifestyle Cathy Farrugia (left) and her husband George (right) meet- ing former prime minister Law- rence Gonzi at Safi. Cathy Far- rugia spent 10 years as Gonzi's secretary when he was legal head at the Mizzi Organisation. The Farrugia brothers blame pardon to tell all about the Enemalta oil bribery eventually took his brothers to court but they they were victims of their brother's own Cathy Farrugia (left) and her husband George (right) meeting former prime minister Lawrence Gonzi at Safi. Cathy Farrugia spent 10 years as Gonzi's secretary when he was legal head at the Mizzi Organisation. The Farrugia brothers blame George and his wife for siphoning company funds to finance their lavish lifestyle > CONTINUES ON NEXT PAGE