Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/212250
20 News maltatoday, SUNDAY, 17 NOVEMBER 2013 'Conman' who said Cruise wanted San Gwann mansion, jailed AN alleged financier who had Alessandro Proto fed the Malta Film Commission a ruse that Hollywood star Tom Cruise wanted to buy a massive house in Malta, is facing three years, 10 months in jail. The Swiss-based, self-styled 'broker to the stars' Alessandro Proto, 38, was arrested earlier this year by Milan police and now sentenced to over three years in jail for market rigging. Italian news reports say he is now negotiating the scale of his conviction. He has also been publicly interdicted for two years. Proto once posed as a property broker for Hollywood stars and had sent Maltese real estate agents in a frenzy over news that Tom Cruise wanted to buy a house in Malta. But since then, he was arrested after promoting himself as the broker for unknown third parties, pledging finance to buy up stakes in major Italian companies like Fiat and Tod's. "All his market announcements are shrouded in mystery," the Milanese prosecutor Stefania Donadeo said in her request for an arrest warrant. "Proto… is a capable conman, much to the chagrin of cash-strapped investors looking for finance outside the common banking channels." Proto sparked 'Tom Cruise fever' in Malta the minute news broke that the actor was planning to buy his next residence in Malta. Property agents tried to entice Cruise's alleged house-hunter to buy Villa Rosa in St George's Bay, which was purchased for €29 million back in 2009. When MaltaToday revealed that Cruise's publicists had denied Proto's claims, the financier spent the next weeks trying to convince MaltaToday that Cruise had really put his finger on a "suitable" €12 million property in the San Gwann environs. Clarification Mgr Charles Scicluna THE interview with Mgr Charles Scicluna on Sunday, 10 November contained the following inaccuracy: "I hope the Maltese bill will be changed at committee stage to impose upon gay couples the impediment" when it should in fact read: "I hope the Maltese bill will be changed at committee stage so that the law does not impose upon gay couples the impediment." On the same subject, with reference to the declaration made by Bishop Scicluna that "Helena Dalli promised a White Paper and instead chose to bring forward a draft law …", the minister's spokesperson avails itself of a right of reply to state that Minister Dalli never said the government will publish a white paper on civil unions. "She always spoke of a Bill. It will be appreciated if we all stick to facts." The ministry has also directed readers to the original announcement of the Bill as reported on PBS, which can be found on this link: http://bit.ly/19pLpze The online version of the interview has been updated accordingly: http://bit.ly/19jISXb