Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/470920
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 1 MARCH 2015 3 News 'Nobody took any commission' - OPM advisor John Sciberras CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Corroborating evidence of the planned takeover by M&A Invest- ments came in an 11 October, 2013 email from the GPD director, who told the Cabinet Office that Camill- eri was in the process of becoming the sole shareholder of Cities En- tertainment. Then on 8 November, lawyer Stefano Filletti told the GPD director that plans were afoot to buy out Curmi's share. It is unclear what role Filletti had been playing at this stage as both GPD consultant and Camilleri's lawyer: Camilleri secured the government's €4.2 million offer on 24 September, but Filletti officially withdrew from his representation of Camilleri only in November 2013. Indeed, the takeover failed when Banif Bank refused to release Neville Curmi from his personal guarantees on Cities Entertainment's loans. It was at this point that Camilleri in- formed Curmi of the deal reached with the government. Curmi told the NAO he had "a sense of having been misled" by Camilleri, realising that the agreement had already been reached many weeks before. In January 2014, Camilleri de- manded at a board meeting that he be paid a €210,000 commission – 5% on the €4.2 million deal . Although he claimed with the NAO that this was a repayment of a shareholders' loan, Curmi gave the NAO a board resolution dated 28 January, 2014, a day prior to the signing of the agree- ment with the government, signal- ling the acceptance of both parties to the payment of this commission. 'Ambiguous' role Two days before signing the gov- ernment deed, notary Malcolm Man- gion – son of Labour MP Charles Mangion and whose office conduct- ed land valuations of the Café Pre- mier in 2002 and 2009 – requested a €20,000 consultancy fee from the GPD's notary. Mario Camilleri claimed with the NAO that the payment was for Mangion and lawyer John Gauci for "research". Gauci had been brought in when Filletti withdrew from rep- resenting Camilleri: this was stated in a 14 November, 2013 email to the GPD notary from Filletti, saying that Gauci and Mangion would take over. His email contained the promise- of-sale agreement between Cities Entertainment and the government that was eventually signed in Janu- ary 2014. The GPD notary also said that it was Filletti who told her that the €20,000 payment was to be made to Mangion as a "legal consultancy". Even stranger is the fact that Man- gion was also representing Golden Harvest, creditors who were paid €3,265 in the bailout. In some timely fashion, the company secured a ju- dicial hypothec on 23 January, 2014. Undoubtedly, Mangion was at the time aware of the impending deal. €210,000 commission In comments to MaltaToday yes- terday, the advisor to the OPM – former GPD director John Sciber- ras – denied taking any part of the €210,000 commission that Mario Camilleri claimed for his company M&A Investments, in the €4.2 mil- lion deal. "As far as I know, nobody took any commission," the architect said. "All I did was to carry out my assignment. I was first spoken to about the Café Premier in May 2013, over the gov- ernment's intention to claim back the property and provide accessibil- ity to the National Library. I was not aware of the matter before the elec- tion." Back in 2006 as GPD director, Sci- berras had supported taking Cities Entertainment to court to dissolve the deed after the company was fail- ing to make the necessary rental pay- ments. "After 2008 I was a private citizen and I gave my services as an architect of 40 years' experience to who con- tracted me," Sciberras said. "The government asked me for my technical opinion, and the valuation I gave was based on a market price far lower than that demanded by Cit- ies Entertainment – of €5.3 million – or the NAO's own valuation." mvella@mediatoday.com.mt Cities Entertainment: shareholders Jamco Ltd [Mario Camilleri] 39.4% M&A Investments [Mario Camilleri] 28.9% Daneta Ltd [Neville Curmi et al] 21.0% Cabellero Entertainments [Neville Curmi] 10.5% Impact Ltd 0.1% €4.2 million for Cities Entertainment: where the money went Rental arrears to GPD €307,347 Capital gains tax payable to IRD €504,000 Income tax payable to IRD €192,748 VAT payable to VAT dept €227,059 ARMS Ltd energy bills €130,964 M&A Investments [Mario Camiller] €210,000 Notary Malcolm Mangion ['legal consultant'] €20,000 Golden Harvest [represented by Notary Mangion] €3,265 Cities Entertainment €43,817 Banif Bank plc €2,560,800 Any remainder was left to Cities Entertainment