Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/475084
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 8 MARCH 2015 6 News MATTHEW VELLA A lawyer of one of the Café Premier shareholders has replied to asser- tions made by the Auditor General, of having played an "ambiguous" role in the €4.2 million bailout, tell- ing MaltaToday that he declared his conflict of interest much earlier on in the government's controver- sial re-acquisition of the lease, and played no part in any dealings with the administration. Stefano Filletti – a legal consultant to the Government Property De- partment – told MaltaToday that he was not aware that his client, Mario Camilleri, had been negotiating with the Office of the Prime Minister throughout the summer of 2013 to sell Cities Entertainment's 65-year- lease back to the government. The company was facing eviction by the GPD from the Café Premier for failing to pay some €200,000 in rent in December 2012. But that court action was stopped after March 2013, when Labour won the general election. The government later bought back the 65-year-lease for the Café Premier, in a controver- sial €4.2 million payment to Cities Entertainment. But Filletti has told MaltaToday he was not involved in the court action for eviction after Cities Entertain- ment failed to pay some €200,000 in rent. "I was originally engaged for the purpose of assisting in a possible to- tal share acquisition by the Camilleri family in Café Premier," said Filletti, whose engagement began shortly after the acquisition plans by entre- preneur Anglu Xuereb failed in late June 2013. "At that stage I was unaware that Mario Camilleri had entered into negotiations with the government for the possible reacquisition of the Café Premier." At this point, after the attempt to sell Cities Entertainment to An- glu Xuereb failed, Camilleri's family planned to buy out his partner, Nev- ille Curmi. "It was in September 2013 that Camilleri then informed me that he was close to getting a solid offer of reacquisition from the government. At that point I immediately declared my conflict of interest, requesting Camilleri to seek alternative legal advisors in negotiations with the government," Filletti told MaltaTo- day. "At this point I also informed the Commissioner of Lands and the GPD director-general, requesting not to be assigned this case, given my conflict of interest," Filletti said. Both GPD directors and Mario Camilleri confirmed this fact under oath to the Auditor General, say- ing that Filletti was not engaged by either of them to assist in the Café Premier transaction with the gov- ernment. Although negotiations on the share transfer continued until the first half of November, this was stopped when Banif Bank refused to release Neville Curmi from the company's personal liabilities in the event of the share transfer. "It was at this stage that my engagement came to an end," Filletti said. Filletti also disputed claims in the National Audit Office's report that he had provided the promise-of-sale agreement and contract to the GPD's notary on Camilleri's behalf for the sale of the Café Premier lease. "The convenium and deed were drafted by the Lands Department and emailed to me. In these drafts all the relative payments, including payment to notary Malcolm Man- gion, had already been indicated by the GPD. In my email reply, I de- clared that I had not amended the public deed, having merely brought the convenium in line with the pub- lic deed. I explicitly reconfirmed my conflict of interest." Filletti, who was not interviewed by the NAO for its inquiry into the Café Premier bailout, also requested that he be excluded from correspond- ence in the first email received from the Lands Department. "Mario Camilleri indicated to the GPD notary that the €20,000 legal consultancy fees had to be paid on deed to Notary Mangion – a fact I only learned from the GPD notary herself, and subsequently confirmed in her same email. The NAO report confirms this fact. It also confirms that in my reply I declared my con- flict of interest and that the con- venium was in fact discarded." Filletti categorically denied with MaltaToday having received any payment in respect of the said trans- action or being paid any amounts from the €210,000 commission that Camilleri claimed for himself as a 5% fee on the €4.2 million price. "The NAO report does not suggest in any way that I was paid any fee or commission. I reiterate that I did not take any part in any negotiations with the government." Lawyer declared conflict of interest in Café Premier deal MATTHEW VELLA FORMER Nationalist minister for lands Jason Azzopardi has told MaltaToday he was unaware that the Government Prop- erty Department had taken the leasehold- ers of Café Premier, Cities Entertainment, to court in late 2012 after the company failed to pay over €200,000 in rental ar- rears. The former minister was reacting to statements by the government after former Commissioner of Land Joe Bugeja said that a reason for his departure from the GPD was related to the way the Of- fice of the Prime Minister excluded the department on the €4.2 million reacquisi- tion of the 65-year-lease from Cities En- tertainment (CE) after cancelling court action against the company. Yesterday the government said in a statement that Bugeja "never flagged spe- cific reservations" in his resignation letter to the government, "nor did he ever men- tion the Premier issue" with the responsi- ble parliamentary secretary. Questioned by MaltaToday during a press conference earlier yesterday af- ternoon, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat reiterated that Bugeja had "nine months during which he could have complained" about the Café Premier bailout. "As a regulator, it would have been his duty to flag specific reservations had he had them. Furthermore, he never met or sought a meeting with the Prime Minister on this or any other case," a government spokesperson said. The government said that Bugeja hand- ed in his resignation nine months after the signing of the said contract. "The gov- ernment would not have been surprised had Bugeja decided to resign in the wake of the Fekruna scandal and other dossiers currently under scrutiny, and which hap- pened on his watch during the previous administration," the spokesperson added. Muscat is under fire by the Opposition after a National Audit Office inquiry con- firmed that the government chose to stop court action against CE in order to take back its lease on the Café Premier site, lo- cated beneath the Biblioteca in Valletta, at the price of €4.2 million. The money was used by CE to pay back the State Former minister by Muscat's bluster encroachments 'I was unaware that Mario Camilleri had entered into negotiations with the government for the possible reacquisition of the Café Premier.' The Mare d'Oro expropriation was of over €4 million and was sealed on the eve of the 2013 election Jason Azzopardi