Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/440087
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 31 DECEMBER 2014 8 15 Years 'Cachia Caruana fires Brussels whistleblower' MALTATODAY exclusively report- ed that the office of Malta's former permanent representative to the EU, Richard Cachia Caruana, had been flagged by the Belgian ministry for employment over its irregular labour practices, denial of overtime and ir- regular salary payments to Belgian nationals. In correspondence exclusively seen by MaltaToday, the director- general of the Belgian federal serv- ice of employment (FSE) had called on the Belgian kingdom's chief of protocol, Ambassador Peter Martin, to bring the Permanent Representa- tion in line with Belgian and EU law. The employee, a chauffeur at the representation, was fired on 4 March 2011 after admitting to hav- ing spoken to Belgian newspaper Le Soir over the permanent representa- tion's irregular labour practices. The representation paid the driver a gross salary of some €1,200, deducted all taxation and social security contributions; but then added an extra €250-€350 allow- ance to top up his net salary – not as an extra benefit, but to reach the salary level he was entitled to in his employment contracts. The chauffeur, employed since 2005, had exposed the permanent representation's illegal employment practices to the Belgian press, which published the embarrassing revela- tions on 4 February. 18 April, 2011 2011 Millionaire in murder inquiry 'hosted' in Malta AN investigation by MaltaToday into the criminal inquiries led by Austrian prosecutors on Rakhat Aliyev, 49 - Kazakhstan's former ambassador to Vienna - established that the Maltese government awarded the millionaire a permanent residence permit, de- spite objections raised by the police due to a previous Interpol alert issued against him. The powerful family squabble between the President of the oil-rich nation of Kazakhstan and his power- ful, exiled son-in-law Rakhat Aliyev, boiled over in Malta, with reports of Aliyev's commercial activities reach- ing the island's Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit. And in the Maltese courts, a €2.4 million lawsuit was the subject of a bitter feud between Aliyev – who goes by the name of Rakhat Shoraz, who for a while lived in Mellieha's swank Santa Marija estate with wife Elnara Shorazova – and his former lawyer, Pio Valletta. Shorazova and Aliyev sued Valletta for charging exorbitant fees for his services to procure them permanent residence status, and search for a property for them. In a counter- claim, Valletta is demanding €1.5 million for his services. "The case embroils the Maltese government, as Foreign Affairs Minister Tonio Borg and former Home Affairs minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici have also been summoned as witnesses in the lawsuit. "The big question for Malta's top ministers is why Rakhat Aliyev, the subject of an Austrian criminal in- vestigation since 2007 and with a po- litical past tarnished by allegations of violence, was awarded residence status in Malta in 2010." He lived in Malta up until June 2014, when he turned himself in for "investigative custody" in Austria where prosecutors have charged him with the murder of two bankers in 2007, a case in which Kazakhstan has repeatedly requested his extradi- tion. 24 June, 2012 2012 1S\b`S>]W\bB`W_2c\9O`[ 0W`YW`YO`O0g^Oaa0W`YW`YO`O 09@'!%;OZbO >V]\S(!#$ ! "!!" ESP(eeeRW[SQVS\bQ][ 3[OWZ(OZO\.RW[SQVS\bQ][