Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/866589
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 27 AUGUST 2017 2 News DELIA ALLEGATIONS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The PN statement was issued half-way through a press confer- ence called by Delia at 4:30pm yesterday, in which he reiterated that his involvement in the Greek Street rental payments was merely that of a lawyer offering profes- sional services to a client – in this case, the landlord of the property in question. He denied ever hav- ing benefitted from the rent of the property in question, or having received any of the proceeds from prostitution. Owner of an offshore account On Wednesday, Caruana Gali- zia, writing in her blog, claimed that Delia was the owner of an account at a bank in Jersey – an offshore jurisdiction – which was used to process the funds from prostitution at 52 Greek Street in London. The account, she claimed, was used by the apartment's tenant for depositing the proceeds from what was effectively a brothel, with the intention of eventually transferring them to accounts owned by companies in the Mar- shall Islands – of which the prop- erty's landlord was the ultimate beneficial owner. She published a scanned copy of a letter sent to Delia by a legal firm in the UK on behalf of the apartment's tenant, in which the tenant claimed that the apart- ment's landlord had not received the rent paid by the tenant over a period of three to four years, at a rate of £20,000 a month. Delia denied the allegations and filed a libel suit on Thursday morning after which he told jour- nalists that he did not have any personal funds held abroad, while failing to rule out holding funds for clients. Despite this, when contacted by MaltaToday on Friday, he said that he could not remember whether or not he had ever held offshore accounts on behalf of any clients and that given his "line of work", he could not make "blanket statements" in this regard. When it was pointed out that it shouldn't be too difficult to re- member whether or not he had ever held such an account for a client, Delia again stressed he was being careful since he did not wish to say he "didn't do something 15 years ago which would have actu- ally been done in good faith". "I can definitely exclude ever doing something illegal. I can ex- clude that I was ever involved in prostitution, I can exclude that I ever channelled funds knowingly from anything illegal," he said. Delia also denied having any recollection of the letter – dated 2003 – published by Caruana Galizia which was addressed to him by UK lawyers representing the apartment's tenant. "Had I received something that worried me, I would have remembered at the time," he said. "The simple fact that I can't confirm it either way means that it never worried me, otherwise I would have continued to think about it." While it is true that, as stated by Delia himself, it is relatively nor- mal for lawyers to hold accounts on behalf of their clients, lawyers are obliged to carry out the neces- sary due diligence on their client and to ensure that any funds have been declared with the respective authorities. He also insisted with this news- paper that "from the way in which the story is developing", it appeared it wasn't the land- owner that "was doing something wrong" but rather it was the ten- ant. As such, he said that any due diligence he would have carried out on his client would not have flagged any issues. "If I either advised or was a di- rector, I was appearing for the landlord," he said, adding that what could be said with certainty was that if he had known that "this was something related to prostitu- tion and drugs" he wouldn't have done it. He also stressed that with any account held in his name, he would have abided by any legal responsibilities, "whatever they might have been in that particular jurisdiction". The plot thickens Late on Friday, Caruana Gali- zia published land registry docu- ments from the UK showing the property in question, a two-storey building at 52, Greek Street, Lon- don, belonging to Mark Barbara, an aide to economy minister Chris Cardona. The published documents, dated 19 April, 2004, show the property as having been purchased by Bar- bara in March of the same year. When accessed by MaltaToday yesterday, the UK land registry showed the property belonging to Maybole Development Limited – a British Virgin Islands company in the care of Wilson Barca LLP – as of November 2004. As Delia was holding his press conference yesterday, in yet an- other post, Caruana Galizia al- leged that Emanuel, aka Lolly, Bajada acted as the property's tenant, and that the landlord was Bajada's own brother – Eucharist Bajada. At one point, lawyers acting for Emanuel Bajada wrote to De- lia in December 2003, bringing to his notice that some £20,000 in monthly rent that was alleg- edly paid to him for "three to four years" had not been passed on to the companies that ostensi- bly owned the property – Healey Properties and AAS Freight Ser- vices. While Eucharist Bajada's own- ership of either the property or the companies could not be confirmed, the upshot of the al- legations is that Emanuel Bajada would collect the 'rent' for Greek Street, pass it on to Adrian Delia through his Jersey account, who would then be instructed to pass on the money to the property A.F.ELLIS (HOME DECOR) LTD, of Xewkija, Gozo is a retailer of ceramic tiles and sanitary ware and the parent company of GOZO CONCRETE PRODUCTS LTD. which manufactures cement blocks, marble and Gozo Hardstone products in our factory at Xewkija Industrial Estate. In order to strengthen our team, the following vacancies have arisen: ACCOUNTANT (Gozo based) The successful candidate will be ideally a graduate in accountancy and would be expected to prepare regular management accounts, financial statements, statutory reports, payroll runs and tax and VAT returns. A knowledge of Sage and MS Office is essential. SALESPERSON (Malta based) A salesperson is required for our Malta outlet. The right candidate should have a pleasant and persevering personality. The ideal candidate should also have a good knowledge of English and Sage. An attractive salary will be offered to the right candidates. Letters of application and CV's should be submitted to the managing director by e-mail on mail@afellis.com.mt by August 31,2017. 52, Greek Street, London Eucharist Bajada Healey Properties & A.A.S. Freight Services Daphne Caruana Galizia claims the property was owned by Eucharist Bajada, with whom Delia already has a nominal business relationship in Malta through Patience Developments. The payments were ostensibly made to Marshall Islands registered holdings or companies According to a legal letter sent to Delia by Emanuel Bajada's London lawyers, Delia was supposed to have paid the Greek Street rent to these two UK companies. It has not been established whether these are Eucharist Bajada's companies Emanuel Bajada Emanuel Bajada, brother of Eucharist Bajada, collected the rent for the Greek Street property, and paid it into Delia's Barclays International Jersey bank account. In a letter his lawyers sent to Delia, it was said that some £20,000 paid monthly to him for three-four years, were never forwarded to the companies Healey and A.A.S; the lawyers also suggested he may have had an interest in the companies. Delia has vehemently denied having any such ownership. Bajada in 2010 was convicted of running two brothels in Sliema and St Julian's, and given a two-year jail sentence, suspended for four years. His son Victor Philip Bajada, now 39, was also charged, but absconded in 2006. Bajada is the father of Eucharist (Kris) Bajada, the former husband of PN leader Simon Busuttil's sister. Delia also has a nominal shareholding in Eucharist jnr's company. Marshall Islands Barclays Int. Jersey Delia also denied having any recollection of the letter published by Caruana Galizia which was addressed to him by UK lawyers representing the tenant. "Had I received something that worried me, I would have remembered at the time," he said The upshot of the allegations is that Emanuel Bajada would collect the 'rent', pass it on to Adrian Delia through his Jersey account, to pass it on the owner of the property - or Bajada's brother Eucharist