Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/678126
5 maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 11 MAY 2016 News in facilitating offshore tax avoidance judge Ray Pace, owned the BVI company Dram Properties. Tyson Debattista, owner of Sil- ver Score in Malta, is the owner of Virile Traffic in the BVI. Hotel San Antonio plc appears as the shareholder of Evergreen Travel Limited in the BVI, while Island Hotels Group Holdings plc is a shareholder in Island Re- sorts International Limited, and Bay Point Collection in the BVI – these were declared in their an- nual reports. Frenchman Andre Guelfi, con- nected with graft between Elf Aquitane and French politics, and retired in Malta, is the owner of Um- brella Interna- tional. Alan Bruno Olivier – a director and s h a reholder in Fuelserve and MY Ma- rine with Frank Sammut, the man charged with brib- ery in the Enemalta oil scandal – is the owner of Ice Cold Limited in the BVI, set up in 2014. He was not available for comment yester- day. Joseph Zammit, a shareholder of Associated Motors Company, Di- amond Properties, Fergun Ship- ping, Mira Holdings, and Medi- terranean Maritime Services amongst other companies, would not deny that he is the beneficiary of the BVI company Aburrah Limited. He refused to comment to MaltaToday. David Demarco and Daniela Grioli work in the remote gam- ing industry, and are sharehold- ers of Flying Colours Consultancy Limited, set up for them by Jeanne Borg's Intertax Services of Sliema. MaltaToday's attempts to seek comment from her, proved futile. The late Vivian Bianchi, from one of Malta's oldest business groups, had set up Openview Inc. in 1984 and later dissolved it. FZD Trustee and EMD Advisory Nationalist MP Francis Zammit Dimech's FZD Trustee & Fiduci- ary Services, which is now re- named as Valletta Trustees, is no longer his firm since he resigned in August 2014. But in April 2013 the firm acted as the inter- mediary for BVI-in- corporated Interna- tional Goods and Services Lim- ited. Valletta Trustees is owned by Reu- ben Balzan, president of the Chamber of Advocates. One of the main Malta intermediar- ies for offshore com- panies is EMD Ad- visory, one of whose senior consultants is Richard Cachia Caruana, Malta's former ambassador to the Euro- pea Union. They acted as inter- mediaries for 72 companies. Cachia Caruana's name featured prominently with Labour spin doctors eager to include his name as part of the army of intermedi- aries who make offshore possi- ble. He declared that he held "no shares in companies in Panama, the British Virgin Islands or any other tax haven and has never held any." EMD on its part said that it had never assisted any politically ex- posed persons (PEPs) from any jurisdiction, including Malta, to set up any company, trust or other entity, whether as fiduciary or not, in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), Panama or similar jurisdic- tion. Nexia and others Nexia BT on the other hand, with so much store set by the fact that they set up offshore compa- nies for Schembri and Mizzi, were connected with 14 companies. Mary Ellen Mercieca, the wife of Charlie Albert Cordina, is regis- tered as the beneficiary of Com- erco, a company registered in the BVI by Nexia Ltd. Mercieca is a secretary in the rural affairs min- istry and her husband is a busi- nessman. Fenlex Corporate Services, from the Fenech & Fenech law firm, was found connected to three companies, Timber Trading Capi- tal, Winsome Global Incorporat- ed, and Shawnee Business Corp. Businessman Mark Borda is the shareholder of Harrison Equities, again set up by Intertax. Henley & Partners, the Malta IIP concessionaries, set up off- shore companies in the British Virgin Islands and Hong Kong af- ter 2013, as well as in Panama and the Bahamas. Businessman Jacobus Van Vli- et, of Portomaso, is listed as the shareholder of JVV (Portomaso) Limited, a BVI company. Another oil company, CBA International Oilfield Services was registered by Mossack Fon- seca's Jurgen Mossack himself in 1983: it belongs to directors John Camilleri, John Camilleri Jnr, and Charles Camilleri. They were re- cently indicted in a court case when a Maltese court lifted the corporate veil and ordered them to pay the heirs of one of its em- ployees after they attempted to wriggle out of their responsibil- ity by liquidating the company quickly after an accident in Libya in 1984. The former MEPA chief execu- tive Ian Stafrace appeared in the list – the status is suspended – as intermediary for BVI company Gilman Financial Services. Sta- frace told MaltaToday that he has "no connection" with the com- pany other than having rendered a legal service. "The company was incorporated in 2002 after a client sought my advice," he said, adding that there was nothing illicit or tax-related behind the setting up of the com- pany. "The client had particular exigen- cies," Stafrace said. He con- firmed that the client was Mal- tese but did not add any further details. He went on to point out that it had nothing to do with his role as MEPA CEO, which followed years after. Mokhtar Ihsan Aziz, a finan- cial intermediary who is based in Gwardamangia, is registered as a shareholder of the BVI company Roney Holdings. Island Hotels Group Holdings P.L.C. Island Hotels Group, owners of the Radisson in Malta, appears as a shareholder of Bay Point Collec- tion Ltd – a vacation ownership company – which is registered in the British Virgin Islands. The Group owns investment company Island Resorts Interna- tional Ltd which is also registered in the BVI. Winston Zahra, Island Ho- tels Group's CEO, said that none of the companies in which the Group is involved has any con- nection to Panama. "The company categorically states that it has never had any trust, company or account of any kind in this jurisdiction and should not be linked in any way to the Panama Papers story," Zahra told MaltaToday when contacted. "In as far as your first question is concerned, as reported regularly in our annual report, which is a public document widely available, our Group has inter- ests in a number of companies that are reg- istered in the BVI. This is a fact that has never been in any way hidden or c o n c e a l e d . On the con- trary, it has al- ways been made very clear in our public financial statements clearly showing that there is nothing whatsoever to hide and that all is above board." Zahra said that Island Hotels Group Holdings plc is a locally registered company with the MF- SA and its shares were publicly traded between October 2009 and August 2015. It furthermore has locally listed bonds which are traded regularly on the local stock exchange. "It is not and has never been an offshore company." IHI plc, which in 2015 acquired Island Hotels Group, has nothing to do with these offshore compa- nies. Richard Cachia Caruana Winston J. Zahra