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MT 12 October 2014

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maltatoday, Sunday, 12 OctOber 2014 3 News CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 News of Schembri's disappearance was bro- ken in the Nationalist press last week, after purportedly being alerted by debtors left empty-handed after Schembri's ambitious food import business was run to the ground. But it is also banks and other com- panies associated with Schembri which will be left to pick up the piec- es of his business debts. In June 2012, Schembri and his wife purchased a villa in Mellieha's lavish Santa Marija estate for an impressive €535,000. As recently as last June, Schembri and his firm Cassar & Schembri Mar- keting, together with the More Su- permarkets franchise, were registered as debtors of entrepreneur Edmond Mugliett for €2 million in capital, at the highest interest rate permissible at law. The money had been loaned from various companies. Schembri, his firm and the More chain also borrowed €1.5 million, at the highest interest rate possible, from businessman Alexander Far- rugia. Schembri, together with his firm Cassar & Schembri Marketing, also have a fair amount of business loans from banks: as much as €930,000 was outstanding to HSBC Malta before the firm changed its bank to Banif Bank. In 2011, Banif forwarded Cassar & Schembri Marketing €1 million to refinance current facilities held with HSBC Malta, and to refinance their investment and capital expenditure at the Palm City Supermarket out- side Tripoli, Libya. Banif also accorded a €627,000 overdraft to Cassar & Schembri, and another €700,000 loan for Schem- bri's firm Interaa Holdings Ltd, to be utilised for the business's working capital requirements in connection with its Libya operations. Schembri is believed to have bor- rowed large sums of money from other entrepreneurs as well as from loan sharks, before finding he was unable to pay back the loans, origi- nally intended for an ambitious im- port-export operation. The conflict in Libya made it im- possible for Schembri to turn his Palm City supermarket operation into a viable business, despite having been a link for his food import busi- ness to the North African country. Schembri was said to have hit it big with the importation of meat prod- ucts from Brazil, which generated generous profit margins. His ambition for a larger operation, requiring large loans to keep up with larger consignments of meat im- ports, hit hard times some time dur- ing 2014. Sources told In-Nazzjon he was unable to keep up with the pay- ments he owed his creditors, and that he had been reported away from the island for several weeks at a time. It is believed Schembri departed between 20-21 September, when the country was busy celebrating its 50th Independence anniversary, depart- ing by catamaran to Sicily with his Mercedes Benz vehicle. His other business partner in the firm is Etienne Cassar, who also is a co-shareholder with Schembri in Food World Ltd. Cassar & Schembri owns interests in the firms Sant An- drija Developments, Interaa Hold- ings, and Ipco Ltd. Schembri was also a director in the More Supermarkets franchise, which has operations in Fgura, Hamrun, Mosta, Paceville and Valletta. The owners of the More Supermar- kets chain are, according to company records, D.More Holdings, which was constituted in May 2014. D.More Holdings's sole director is Darren Casha, who appears as a personal shareholder for 75% of the company; while Vice Holdings owns the other 25%. Vice Holdings is equally owned by Casha; AZ Investments, whose ben- eficial owner is property entrepre- neur Adrian Zammit; and Raymond Camilleri, of Villino Chapelle in St Paul's Bay. A five-hour Ebola training drill was held at Mater Dei Hospital on Friday, as part of a series of training drills that have been conducted for the past months at the hospital. The training sessions are aimed at evaluating and improving protocol at Mater Dei's Infectious Disease Unit (IDU) for the eventual treatment of potential Ebola virus disease cases. Nurses at the IDU practised standard operating procedures for Ebola sce- narios. Training has been stepped up fol- lowing the evaluation exercise held after October 3, when a patient was admitted with symptoms that led to suspicions of Ebola. The patient was later found to be suffering from ma- laria. Additional headgear has been procured for health care workers in line with WHO best practices. The parliamentary secretariat for health said that, for the past months, the Infectious Disease Unit has been proactive and has been carrying out Ebola professional training drills fol- lowed by debriefing sessions where an analysis of the strengths, weaknesses and areas in need of improvement is conducted. Health Parliamentary Secretary Chris Fearne will be in Brussels to take part in a ministerial conference to as- sess and discuss the level of screening in Europe's ports of entry. Meanwhile, the Health Department has categorically denied media re- ports that there was a suspected case of Ebola in the Gozo General Hospi- tal. "The reported case refers to a man who hasn't left Malta in the past six months and who was never consid- ered to be a suspected Ebola case," the Health Department said, calling for an end to the ringing of "premature" alarm bells over such a serious issue. Millions in bank and private loans, and a €500,000 Santa Marija villa Five-hour Ebola training drill held at Mater Dei Ryan Schembri

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