Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/584253
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 11 OCTOBER 2015 News 3 Grech met John's Group during 2013 election CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The emails appear to belie Grech's statement under oath to the PAC of having met Farrugia – who has admitted having paid bribes to Enemalta of- ficials now facing criminal charges – only once in 2012. Grech also told PAC he once met George Farrugia's brother Ray, and nephew Christian, but gave no details of the meeting. In comments to this newspa- per, Chris Farrugia – the CEO of John's Group – recalled that his 2013 meeting with Grech was on the same evening that the PN had organised a press conference in which the party hit out at the John's Group in relation to the Enemalta oil scandal, which Mal- taToday broke in late January. "My uncle Ray Farrugia had con- tacted Bernard Pace, who worked with Austin Gatt, asking him why they had hit out at the company. Pace suggested they meet up, and Ray asked me to go to the Hamrun office. I went there and I found Pace, who suggested to me that we issue a press statement clearing our company's name, and stating that we had had no business what- soever with Austin Gatt." Gatt was then fighting sugges- tions that he had met with George Farrugia to discuss matters related to the procurement of Enemalta's oil requirements. Farrugia had by then been sacked from the John's Group after his brothers accused him of siphoning off profits on the importation of oil from their subsidiary Powerplan, to his personal company Aikon. In court, the John's Group produced emails showing that Farrugia was on familiar terms with senior Ene- malta officials, to facilitate the sale of Totsa and Trafigura supplies of oil. "Pace told me that Claudio Grech was waiting in the car, and asked me whether it was fine for him to join us. When Grech arrived he demanded the same thing Pace had asked for, and that we should go to the Commissioner of Police. "I told him we had nothing to clarify. It wasn't us who had di- vulged the information and we had nothing to do with all the kick- backs. I also told him that [former MOBC director] Frank Sammut, who admitted to taking bribes, was not our employee." Claudio Grech replies On his part Nationalist MP Claudio Grech said he had "no idea" which emails Malta- Today was refer- ring to, when it was suggested to him that the c o m m u n i c a - tions show he had held previ- ous meetings with Farrugia. "I have no rec- ollection what- soever of meet- ings/emails with George Farrugia before the 2012 encounter that I referred to." Grech insisted that he stood by what he stated in Parliament. "That is the only direct inter- action I remember having with [George Farrugia]. If there was any other encounter or exchange, I don't recall that. If I had stated otherwise I would have been pure- ly speculating." "One also needs to keep in mind that I used to at- tend tens of meetings a day and I received huge number of emails, running into thousands a month. Over a legislature I must have sent and received over a 100,000 emails. In any case, if any exchange took place they must have been uneventful hence why I wouldn't recall them after such a long time." MaltaToday also asked the MP why in 2013, at the time MaltaToday broke the news of the Enemalta kickbacks, he suggested to Chris and Ray Farrugia to issue a press release to clear John's Group name and disassociate the compa- ny from minister Austin Gatt. "The meeting was spe- cifically requested by Chris and Ray Farru- gia who had contacted Bernard Pace and asked to meet me. They asked me to intervene with the PN so that the PN does not mention John's Garage in the whole matter. They stated that 'someone' was concoct- ing to mount an attack on Austin Gatt (I quote them verbatim: "jivv- endika ruhu minn Austin") and also that Manuel Mallia and David Farrugia Sacco had nothing to do with the leakages." Mallia and Farrugia Sacco, at the time having been Labour candi- dates for the March 2013 elections, had represented the John's Group in their legal feud with George Farrugia. "My advice to Chris Farrugia was that he goes to the Commissioner of Police to report all the facts that he has," Grech told MaltaToday. Claudio Grech did however re- member verbatim what he told Ray and Chris Farrugia. "I told them: 'I am not advising you to hold a press conference. You should, in private go to the Commissioner of Police and give him all the facts, you should tell him I am not making allegations on anyone, these are the facts as I know them'." ("Jien mhux qed intik parir taghmel press confer- ence. Li trid taghmel huwa sem- plici – fil-privatezza kollha, tmur ghand il-Kummissarju tal-Pulizija u tghidlu isma: dawn huma l-fatti; jien qed initk kollox; m'qed nallega xejn fuq hadd; dawn huma l-fatti li naf jien.") 'Wrongfully accused' On his part, Chris Farrugia has insisted that his father Anthony Farrugia and his uncles of the John's Group have been wrongly accused in the entire affair. In fact it was the John's Group that presented in court a cache of incriminating documents against George Farrugia, showing that he had devised a bribery system for top Enemalta officials. The charg- es against Farrugia brothers Salvu, Anthony, Gaetano and Raymond were issued by acting police com- missioner Ray Zammit shortly be- fore he resigned in the aftermath of the Sheehan shooting incident, in December 2014. They were charged with hav- ing admitted knowing that their brother was paying bribes to of- ficials to secure oil contracts from Enemalta for Powerplan Ltd, the family business he once man- aged. The brothers were first arrested in March 2013, shortly before the general election, but never ar- raigned. They originally started legal pro- ceedings against George Farrugia for siphoning some €6 million in profits from Powerplan into his own personal company Aikon and an offshore bank account. Many of the company invoices Aikon issued for the supply of oil to Enemalta had been deposited in court. "Based on what George Farru- gia himself stated in evidence to the police, his court evidence was thrown out and led to Ray Ferris being declared innocent," Chris Farrugia said referring to charges filed against the former Enemalta chief financial officer. "The police have no evidence that the Farrugia brothers ever received any monies from the kickbacks, or were aware of the Swiss account that George Farru- gia had in Geneva. They did not even know about this account. Even George Farrugia admitted this during his PAC sitting. As far as I know the police have never even looked into George Farru- gia's Swiss account." George Farrugia before the 2012 stated that 'someone' was concoct- The charg- ly speculating." "One also needs to keep in mind that I used to at- tend tens of meetings a day and I received huge number of emails, running into thousands a month. Over a legislature I must have sent and received over a 100,000 emails. In any case, if any exchange took place they must have been uneventful hence why I wouldn't recall them after such a long time." MaltaToday also asked the MP why in 2013, at the time MaltaToday broke the news of the Enemalta kickbacks, he suggested to Chris and Ray Farrugia to issue a press release to clear John's Group name and disassociate the compa- ny from minister Austin Gatt. "The meeting was spe- cifically requested by Chris and Ray Farru- gia who had contacted Bernard Pace and asked to meet me. They asked me to intervene with the PN so that the PN does not mention John's Garage in the whole matter. They Thread of emails showing meeting set up for 24 October, 2006 with George Farrugia An email sent to Claudio Grech by George Farrugia in August, 2006