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IIP CONTRACT PG 7 SEND US A PHOTO AND WIN TWO TICKETS TO THE GATE OF ITALY WITH VIRTÙ FERRIES • PAGE 16 Newspaper post CONTINUES PAGE 4 YOUR FIRST READ AND FIRST CLICK OF THE DAY WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT maltatoday SUNDAY • 22 FEBRUARY 2015 • ISSUE 798 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY PN top brass asked MPs about overseas accounts Falzon resigns PN executive over €465,000 Swiss account MATTHEW VELLA FORMER Nationalist minister Michael Falzon has publicly admitted to having held an account containing some €465,000 (Lm200,000) at HSBC private bank in Geneva, Switzerland. His comments pre-empted rev- elations by The Malta Inde- pendent on former minis- ters who held undeclared monies in Swiss bank accounts. "I had no prob- lem in con- firming that this infor- m a t i o n was cor- rect," said Falzon, today a political columnist and a member of the government's oil procurement committee, a position he has now given up. A member of the PN executive com- mittee, Falzon has also decided to suspend himself from this role. Opposition leader Simon Busuttil was quick to come out in full force to declare that Falzon's posi- tion had become untenable on both committees, and that he would suspend any PN official found to have held undeclared mon- ies in Swiss bank ac- counts – ostensibly for the purpose of tax avoidance. SHADOW ministers were fore- warned by Nationalist Party of- ficials about whether they were harbouring undeclared cash in foreign accounts before Wednes- day this week. Two MPs contacted by Malta- Today yesterday said that mem- bers of the PN's frontbench were asked on Tuesday and Wednes- day, whether they were holding any Swiss bank accounts with monies they had not declared for tax purposes. SEND US A PHOTO AND WIN TWO WIN! Farrugia's €2 million fuel pump business depended on MRA director's green light PASSAPORT UNJONI EWROPEA MALTA GOLDEN PASSPORT CONTRACT Henley obliges Muscat to do passport sale roadshow SAVIOUR BALZAN OIL trader George Farrugia was commissioned by entrepreneurs to construct five petrol pump stations between 2008 and 2013, at a time when the green light for fuel pump development depended on Godwin Sant, the former director for energy regulation of the Malta Resources Authority. Farrugia, pardoned for his role in devising a bribes system for top En- emalta officials so that he could sell oil from Trafigura and TOTSA to the state utility corporation, was not just a lubricants importer: his business, first through family firm Powerp- lan then later through his company Aikon, was of providing fuel pump technology and infrastructure to Malta's pump operators. Cumulatively, the five pumping stations would have cost €2 million, leaving profits of some €300,000 for the oil trader. Importantly, his relationship with Godwin Sant – who resigned his po- sition in the energy ministry's conser- vation policy unit since MaltaToday's revelation that he accepted freebie UK football tickets from Trafigura at Farrugia's behest – was crucial to the fuel pump business. Sant served as director responsible for energy poli- cy until 2013 and was instrumental in approving the development of new fuel pumps by applicants. Information collected by MaltaTo- day indicates that each petrol station development would rake in at least €350,000 and leave a profit of be- tween €70,000 and €90,000 for each development. Sant, 44, from Naxxar was also responsible for determining and confirming that the specifications of imported oil for energy corporation Enemalta from oil companies Trafig- ura and Totsa, both represented by George Farrugia, were according to the strict tender specifications. Farrugia, who operates from his office in Mosta's Independence Av- enue, still retains a key interest in the petrol station business, in spite of his implication in the wide-ranging cor- ruption scandal at Enemalta. Sant's cosy, quasi-familial relation- ship with Farrugia meant he pro- vided the oil trader with crucial and confidential information on energy policy and government direction on petrol stations. They also travelled together and kept up a flurry of email exchanges, with Sant always careful to use a private Gmail account. YOUR FIRST READ AND FIRST CLICK OF THE DAY €1.40 THE LABOUR MEP AND FORMER PM INTERVIEWED PAGES 14-15 CONTINUES PAGE 3 PAGE 3 THE LABOUR MEP THE LABOUR MEP SANT, FOREVER THE SCEPTIC Why Mr Grey keeps more than his hat on in Fifty Shades • BACK PAGE EROTIC DEFICIT