Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1545750
4 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 8 JULY 2026 NEWS George and his wife for siphon- ing company funds to finance their lavish lifestyle Salvu Farrugia backed up this account, testifying that George actively hid the true nature of his dealings. Whenever Salvu asked George if they should try to pitch for Enemalta's lucrative oil ten- ders, George would brush him off: "He would tell me, 'Oh, there are sharks out there for that work, there are sharks for it, you don't stand a chance.'" Addressing the "pay self" cheques bearing his signature, Salvu explained that George took advantage of their sibling trust. "He would come to me with an empty chequebook and tell me, 'sign a few cheques for me so that if I need to pay someone, I will have the cheque ready.' ... I always trusted him and, that is to say, I never questioned him." Raymond Farrugia, who man- aged the group until 2009, tes- tified that George was always "too busy" to provide manage- ment accounts or financial up- dates. "His meetings were complete- ly devoid of substance because when you met, his phone would ring and he would run off to his office or step out of the room... he never spoke about these things in front of us." He said that George's han- dling of the oil business was something kept in a "black box" where George was "always busy" and often absent from group meetings. How the scheme unravelled The brothers testified that they only discovered George's double-dealing in 2010—three years before the scandal broke in the press. MaltaToday had revealed the scandal in January 2013. While George was away in South Africa attending the 2010 FIFA World Cup, his nephew (Anthony's son) and corporate consultant Anthony Debono, who had been brought in to restructure the struggling group, began digging into the company's IT server. For the Fifa World Cup trip, Raymond Farrugia testified that George invited him to fly out for the final, but Raymond declined, jokingly telling him: "No way I'm flying out for the final, mela jien iċ-Ċisk?" Raymond later discovered that the expensive trip, which involved stays at top hotels and attendance at six World Cup matches, had allegedly been financed using compa- ny funds. His nephew testified that he had grown suspicious of George's lavish lifestyle, which included buying luxury items, classic cars, and high- end properties. He also noticed massive dis- crepancies between the physi- cal oil releases Power Plan was receiving and what was actually being invoiced in the compa- ny's management accounts. One day, George left his iPad unlocked on his desk. Christo- pher opened it and found an invoice that looked identical to Power Plan's, but carried the name of Aikon Limited and bank details for a Swiss account in Geneva. A deep dive into the com- pany's server by IT experts revealed that George and his wife, Catherine Farrugia, had been running a parallel invoic- ing system. "The ratio was one invoice for Power Plan and ten for Aikon," Christopher testified. *"He was using Power Plan's letterhead but inserting Aikon's Geneva bank details at the bottom." Christopher also testified that, during the period be- tween 2008 and 2010, Pow- er Plan held only around six board meetings. He recalled one meeting be- ing a a "fjask kbir" after George informed his brothers that he had created a separate traffic management company with Transport Malta and had uni- laterally granted it a 20% share- holding. The court further noted that on 13 March 2008, a Greek na- tional named George Statis was appointed as a director of Pow- er Plan, before resigning on 29 March 2010, only months be- fore George Farrugia's depar- ture from the company. Armed with this evidence, the brothers confronted George in October 2010, demanded his immediate resignation, and subsequently filed a €7 mil- lion civil lawsuit against him to claw back the stolen funds. The brothers testified that they only learned about the bribery allegations years later through the media and the sub- sequent criminal proceedings. The SsangYong Korando bribe The prosecution had also al- leged that the brothers were complicit in bribing MOBC of- ficial Frank Sammut by gifting him a red SsangYong Korando, valued at Lm13,900 (€28,000), which was imported by the family's car dealership, J.F. Motors, and paid for by Power Plan. However, this allegation fell flat when Frank Sammut him- self took the stand. Sammut chose to speak, pre- senting six original VAT re- ceipts and a hire-purchase agreement proving that he had actually bought and paid for the car himself. Sammut testified that he had made regular payments direct- ly to George Farrugia to settle the debt, debunking the prose- cution's theory that the vehicle was a freebie handed over as a kickback. The court also heard evidence regarding a traditional Maltese wall clock (arloġġ tal-lira) gift- ed to former Finance Minister Tonio Fenech. The watch had been hand- made by Raymond Farrugia's wife, but it emerged during the investigation that the ma- terials, or the watch itself, had been paid for by Power Plan Limited. Its value was esti- mated at between Lm400 and Lm500 (€930 to €1,160). George Farrugia's 'selective' memory The prosecution's case rested almost entirely on the testimo- ny of George Farrugia with the magistrate calling out what she described as his selective ap- proach. "The court cannot help but notice that in his testimony, George Farrugia was selective about what he said," the mag- istrate observed. "While he testified in great detail about certain things, he forgot other highly relevant details." For instance, George claimed that Power Plan's auditor had repeatedly warned the direc- tors during board meetings to stop drawing cash and issuing "pay self" or "pay cash" cheques without supporting invoic- es. Farrugia asserted that this warning prompted him to set up a Swiss-banked nominee company, Aikon Limited, to "park" funds and pay off offi- cials with the tacit approval of his brothers. Yet, when pressed, George could not even recall the name of the auditor or the account- ant who supposedly gave this advice. The court noted: "He forgets the name of the auditor and ac- countant who told them to stop the practice of 'pay self' and 'pay cash'... and this is when he links the incorporation of the nominee company with the ad- vice of this nameless auditor." No 'common design' In evaluating the mountain of evidence, Magistrate Mi- callef Stafrace noted that for a charge of complicity to stick, the prosecution had to prove beyond reasonable doubt that there was a "common design", a shared criminal intent, be- tween the accomplice and the principal offender. The court found that the prosecution had failed to meet this threshold. First, the court said that the prosecution's entire case rest- ed on the word of George Far- rugia, whose testimony was highly selective and completely uncorroborated. The court particularly high- lighted that George never pro- duced the Swiss bank state- ments that could have shown the flow of money through Aikon, despite his presidential pardon requiring him to coop- erate fully with investigators. The court pointed out that despite his presidential pardon requiring him to be fully trans- parent, George had stubborn- ly refused to present his Swiss bank statements, which would have shown exactly where the money went. Second, the court noted that there was absolutely no evi- dence that the accused broth- ers had ever met or had any contact with the officials George was allegedly bribing. Third, the court accepted that the brothers had operated on a system of "complete sibling trust", which, while corporate negligence, did not equate to criminal intent. "Certainly, signing blank cheques is not a good practice, but this does not mean that it leads to a finding of guilt for complicity in crimes of corrup- tion," the magistrate ruled. Magistrate Micallef Stafrace also pointed out that the pros- ecution had failed to bring forward key witnesses, such as Trafigura representative Tim Waters or consultant Anthony Debono, despite the case drag- ging on for years. She also noted that the two public officials George claimed to have bribed, Tarcisio Mifsud and Ray Ferris, had already been cleared of all charges by other courts. Lawyers Joe Giglio u David Farrugia Sacco appeared for the acquitted Farrugia broth- ers. Court rejects George Farrugia's claims, acquits five brothers < FROM PREVIOUS PAGE Tancred Tabone flanked by his lawyer, Gianella de Marco during a hearing of the PAC