Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/188841
3 News maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 9 OCTOBER 2013 CONTINUES ON PAGE 1 Labour's citizenship rules: you can become Maltese for €650,000 Individual Investor Programme to grant certificate of naturalisation for rich 'citizens' MATTHEW VELLA ACCORDING to the draft bill, the IIP will allow "for the grant of citizenship by a certificate of naturalisation to foreign individuals and families who contribute to the economic development of Malta". Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told Bloomberg in an interview that his government was interested "in bringing in all those who are reputable people, who are willing to take up residence in Malta". "We, however, don't do the hard selling. An address in Malta, residence in Malta, comes at a premium. So we are not into selling this right cheap. We have limited space in our country, so we have to choose people carefully, no matter what nation they come from. In the next few months we will be issuing what I believe will be new exciting programs on residency and even citizenship. Again, due diligence and choosing the right type of per- We have limited space in our country, so we have to choose people carefully, no matter what nation they come from – PM Joseph Muscat son will be paramount." Any dependants of the applicant – spouse, children or parents – must be certified not to be suffering from Prime Minister Joseph Muscat any contagious disease and must be in good health according to the due diligence application form. The programme will be specifically addressed to non-EU citizens who do not avail themselves of other tax exile schemes and property acquisition programmes. Applicants must have a clean criminal record and cannot be considered a "potential threat to Malta's independence, national security or reputation". Prime Minister Joseph Muscat will also appoint a regulator – a former judge or magistrate, a former Attorney General or permanent secretary, or someone who has practised law for the past 12 years – to oversee the correct implementation of the IIP. mvella@mediatoday.com.mt Auditor says Fantasy Tours was beyond rescue Fantasy Tours owner Karl Azzopardi says he paid a high price and gambled with the public's esteem in a bid to save Fantasy Tours, while an auditor described it as beyond rescue CHRIS MANGION AUDITOR Paul Marmara told the court that even if someone had injected a vast sum of capital in Fantasy Tours and Golden Travel Club, the company would still have floundered. Marmara was appointed by the court to prepare an audit of the company's financial situation from 2009 to date. He said the blame lay with the company's insistence on selling tours to Corfu, the company's main market, though clients said they would not book because of the Consumer Affairs Authority's warning on the company. Taking the witness stand in the case regarding Fantasy Tours' declaration of bankruptcy after cancelling its clients' holidays, the auditor said that he was close to concluding the draft report for the 2009 finances. Marmara explained that he was finding it difficult to compile the report from 2010 onwards, as the police had seized the server containing the relevant documents. However, he managed to draft a report for 2009 and the first six months of 2013. He confirmed that Karl Azzopardi had acquired the company in 2009. In the first two years, there had been a great loss, but then a small profit. The estimated cumulative loss at the end of 2009 was €120,000. During the first six months of 2013, Fantasy Tours managed to attract revenues of €131,000 against a total expenditure of €95,000. This generated a profit of €35,000. Similarly, the company earned €49,795 from Thompson Cruises, of which €30,500 consisted of expenses. Again the company registered a profit of €19,295. However, this figure does not include the Corfu package. Azzopardi had taken upon himself commitments with airlines and hotels, which had to be honoured even if the tours were not sold. Corfu tours generated a total income of €53,900. However, the expenditures added up to €140,000, leaving the company with a loss of €38,000. Thus in the first six months of 2013 the company ran at a cumulative loss of €33,000 over travel arrangements alone. The auditor found that expenses for 2013 totalled €195,00. These were mainly due to salaries and advertising campaigns aimed at promoting the Corfu packages. Repeatedly asked if he was sure of his desire to take the witness stand, company owner Karl Azzopardi reiterated that he would have paid any price to save his company – a conviction which cost him his self-esteem, his public image and hundreds of thousands of his personal fortune. Azzopardi claimed that he had even refrained from cashing his salary cheques for a number of months. These, together with other financial documents, contracts with hotels and advertising material, were exhibited in court. Asked by Judge Zammit McKeon why he continued to take clients' money only to close shop the following day, Azzopardi replied that he needed the money to pay his suppliers. Moments later he changed his answer and said he had still believed that more bookings and a possible merger would save his company. "What is the price of your pride? How can you face the world of consumers again after treating clients like this?" the judge asked. Azzopardi remained silent, with his head bowed, as he leafed through his documents. The judge held that he could not understand how and why Azzopardi had chosen to keep taking money from his clients right up to the very last day. Under oath, Azzopardi said he had had tried all options: "I approached Mondial Travel and Britannia Tours. I even had a foreign investor inter- ested in a merger, but they all turned me down," he said. Azzopardi explained how he, his wife and his mother had become shareholders of Golden Travel Club, with the other owners being Alfred Spiteri and Roderick Grech. In 2009, he had taken over the company after both Spiteri and Grech resigned. Having bought the company in a bid to save the name he had helped create, he overlooked the financial reports, which featured debts of between €400,000 and €500,000. However when he realised the extent of the financial burdens, he kept going. "Spiteri used to take care of the company's accounts, and he left the coffers empty," Azzopardi claimed. He also realised the company owed Air Malta €132,000. A payment schedule was agreed to and the debt was settled in a year. The company registered a minor profit in 2010 and a higher one in 2011, Azzopardi explained. In 2012, Azzopardi was hospitalised after being diagnosed with cancer. While he was still in hospital, the MCCAA issued a public warning about Fantasy Tours, due to the substantial number of complaints it had received. Azzopardi said 150 complaints about Fantasy Tours were registered between 2008 and 2013. The complaints were all settled to protect his company's name, yet the MCCAA never removed the public warning. "They kept telling me they were waiting to see if more complaints will be received; meanwhile anyone Googling Fantasy Tours was seeing the warning before they ever got to the company's website," he said. The financial crises in Europe compounded the problem, as agents and hoteliers started asking for cash in advance rather than allowing credit terms. The bookings for Corfu, the company's main tour destination, registered huge losses. While holiday- "What is the price of your pride? How can you face the world of consumers again after treating clients like this?" the judge asked makers cancelled their tours due to the MCCAA warning, the company had to keep honouring its pre-booked chartered flights and hotel rooms. "There were instances where chartered flights left with only 60 people on board. It cost the company €12,500 per flight, and we never sold a full flight." On 30 July, Azzopardi made a last attempt to save the company. He deposited €30,000 of his own money into Fantasy Tour's coffers. On 7 August, Fantasy Tours informed its clients that their booked holidays were cancelled. An SMS informed holidaymakers that the company had closed down. On the previous day, 6 August, Azzopardi had phoned his outlets telling staff not to take more bookings. The court postponed the hearing to 15 November to allow for more witnesses.