Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/228594
16 News maltatoday, SUNDAY, 15 DECEMBER 2013 Loose ends abound in Enem No cash trail for alleged hundreds of thousands in bribes to Tancred Tabone yet identified by police. Conflicts in claims by George Farrugia to PAC when compared to emails seen by MaltaToday CONTINUES FROM PAGE 1 Police investigators looking into the case of the bribes paid to Enemalta officials for the procurement of fuel to the state energy corporation, have not yet established any cash trail that confirms the alleged $300,000 that oil trader George Farrugia says he paid Tancred Tabone, the former Enemalta chairman – or any cash deposits made in any account, local or overseas, belonging to Tabone. Farrugia, an agent for commodities firms TOTSA and Trafigura, this week told the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee that he had met the Enemalta chairman in Geneva, ostensibly to facilitate a cash transfer he was to pay to Tabone. Farrugia this week said he paid some $100,000 in bribes to Frank Sammut, formerly the chief of Enemalta's bunkering subsidiary MOBC until 2003, and then to Tancred Tabone, so that he retains a fair share of business in supplying oil to Enemalta. "Farrugia is giving the impression that he was asked to fly to Geneva to facilitate a cash transfer," a source privy to the ongoing criminal investigations told MaltaToday. "It is known that Tabone did carry out a visit on official Enemalta business in Geneva, but he says that he was invited to dinner by TOTSA's Olivier de Richemont and George Farrugia made a surprise appearance, Tabone claims no money was ever offered." Farrugia suggests the opposite, although police are now interested in learning more about the fact that the trader was also representing another company that took fuel contracts from Enemalta – Spanish traders Sempra – a fact so far undisclosed to the PAC. Emails in MaltaToday's possession certainly confirm the intimacy Farrugia had with Frank Sammut, the petrochemist who headed the Mediterranean Bunkering Oil Corporation before his post was terminated and he was later reappointed in 2003 as a consultant to Tabone at Enemalta. Farrugia went out of his way to arrange a visit for Sammut to the Sempra offices, with the help of the Maltese embassy and diplomat Cecilia Attard Pirotta which, on its part, acceded to the request. The friendship between the two is indicative from the way they communicated with each other. Farrugia tells Sammut in one email: "Hi Frank in-nittien ix-xiħ (Hi Frank, you dirty old man)." Farrugia has claimed that the $400,000 in so called "commissions" he was paying to Sammut and Tabone up until around 2006 (both men were up until this time, silent partners in Island Bunker Oils Ltd, a rival to state bunkering firm MOBC) had been unnecessary, learning as he did later that Enemalta was awarding its fuel tenders to the cheapest bids irrespectively of his bribes. Farrugia has told the PAC that he was hassled by "unknown" Enemalta officials, and emails to TOTSA show him making the assumption that Enemalta had accepted his tender even though it was not the cheapest. But an analysis of the fuel tenders awarded by Enemalta shows that TOTSA was in fact the cheapest offer compared to three other bidders, at the time of this email: Naftomar with $53 per metric tonne, Vegaz at $59, and Eni at $65. TOTSA's price was $53. The question is whether Farrugia was giving the false impression to the trading companies he represented that his alleged insider contacts were indeed putting him under immense pressure to pay bribes; or that he needed to exert some form of pressure himself, when in reality he could not even do so. Farrugia may have availed himself of the genius of Frank Sammut in withholding the true scale of the commission he reaped on fuel sales to Enemalta, from his own brothers and coshareholders in family business Powerplan, a subsidiary of the John's Group. Farrugia told the PAC that in November 2003, the Libyan government halted what was previously believed to be a "preferential" rate on the sale of fuel to Malta. The purchase of oil was then handled single-handedly by chief financial officer Tarcisio Mifsud, while the purchase of jet fuel and other fuels were handled by Enemalta's head of petroleum Alfred Mallia. Both men are facing criminal charges of accepting bribes in relation to the fuel scandal. So far Farrugia has been keen on pushing the fact that he was asked directly for commissions by these individuals. Police investigators however believe there is more than meets the eye. "We know that he paid a lot of cash in alleged bribes, and that he also continued gifting people in Enemalta middle- and top management, for example a very expensive pen to [acting chairman] William Spiteri Bailey after 2010, and silver tray to Ray Ferris. If Farrugia is blaming everyone for asking him for bribes, isn't it also possible that Farrugia himself was persistent in his own offers?" In Frank Sammut, Farrugia found the makings of a creative mind that combined his knowledge of industrial chemistry with the law of the marketplace. A former chemistry teacher at De La Salle College, he was a consultant at Enemalta under Tabone and two former chairmen before 2003, and worked closely with ministers like Ninu Zammit and Josef Bonnici. In 2003 Enemalta discovered that when the Libyan 'preferential' supply was halted, the real price of fuel on the open market was actually far cheaper. And it was here that Enemalta started to buy fuel at far cheaper prices than before. "The Libyans took Malta for a ride and the government did not even realise it," a former Enemalta official told MaltaToday. "It's highly unlikely Enemalta was not aware of this when it started buying fuel at prices 25% cheaper than the Libyan price." From November 2003 onwards, Enemalta informed trading companies they would be invited to bid for The email to Frank Sammut 'the dirty old man', from Farrugia asking him to get $3,000 – 24 September, 2004 The email to Naeem Ahmed from Trafigura – 18 July, 2003 The chat with Naeem Ahmed ni 2010, about a payment from George Farrugia to his private Swiss account The email to Totsa from George Farrugia claiming that they were not the cheapest tender – 21 February, 2005 The email to the Madrid Maltese embassy thanking them for assisting Frank Sammut – 6 April, 2004 the supply of fuel, which would then be decided by a new fuel procurement committee. Frank Sammut is known to have been present on just one of the meetings. And as data released by Enemalta shows, under Tabone's chairmanship Trafigura and TOTSA won five out of six contracts; they altogether took 23 contracts under the chairmanship of Tabone's successor, Alex Tranter. It's clear that Farrugia has set much store during his PAC testimony, in accusing Tabone as one of the main recipients of his bribes. But he seemed equally intent on blurring any sort of relationship he might have had with Tranter. In fact, although the companies he represented enjoyed more success under Tranter's chairmanship, Farrugia described Tranter's relationship with him as "cold", even suggesting that Tabone had poisoned the well in order to keep Farrugia under his influence. But emails seen by MaltaToday show a different kind of relationship between Farrugia and Tranter. It is known for example that the Tranters and Farrugias had shared a dinner table in Miami during a business visit. And on the 22 October, 2009, Tranter's wife requested a sponsorship for her dance company from Farrugia himself, the email starting off with a "Dear George… hope you are well." If Farrugia truly shunned politicians, as he so loftily declared to the PAC, his continual attempts to meet investments and transport minister Austin Gatt – who was responsible for Enemalta up until 2010 – belies this claim. He even went out of his way to contact Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi by email, to transmit a complaint from some Swiss acquaintances who had travelled to Malta – it was necessary, it seems, for Farrugia to actually remind the prime minister that his wife Cathy Anne Farrugia had been his secretary during Gonzi's time at Mizzi Organisation. At the PAC, Farrugia has been careful to dispel his proximity to politicians – enduringly illustrated by the gift of an artisan Maltese clock to finance minister Tonio Fenech – by claiming that the John's Group had donated a Daewoo vehicle to the Labour Party. A Labour Party source has since told this newspaper that the car, allegedly valued at some €4,000, was "paid" by the John's Group in repayment of a €9,000 bill for adverts carried on