Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/867386
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 30 AUGUST 2017 4 News CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Malta- Today was still awaiting com- ments from Delia and Cardona, at the time of going to print. Caruana Galizia published a letter from a London law firm acting on behalf of tenant Em- manuel Bajada – who in an un- related case in Malta in 2005 was charged with living off earnings from prostitution – addressed to Delia. The lawyers, Carter Lemon Camerons (CLC) claim in their letter that Bajada was in- structed, as tenant of several properties, to pass on the rent to two companies that owned the houses – Healey Properties Limited, and AAS Freight Ser- vices (which MaltaToday has not yet managed to trace, pos- sibly due to the company having changed its name). New documents seen by this newspaper show the 52 Greek Street address as well as other properties, were indeed at the centre of activity of a well-estab- lished prostitution ring in Lon- don: after a raid on the proper- ties in July 2003, Harrow Crown Court found three women – Guilnara Gadzijeva, Vethasa- lem Muruganathan and Olga Chukanova – guilty of running a lucrative prostitution busi- ness out of several addresses in the Mayfair and Soho area. 52 Greek Street and 16 Stanhope Row were two of the addresses out of which Gadzijeva and her associates were operating. Did the Bajadas use Jersey to transfer ill-gotten earnings? While MaltaToday has no rea- son to doubt the authenticity of the documents in its possession it must be stated that, like those published by Caruana Gali- zia, they likely represent only a snapshot of the complete pic- ture. So far, the only documents directly linking Delia are the board resolution in MaltaTo- day's possession, and the letter published by Caruana Galizia, referencing Delia. MaltaToday's source claims that both Delia and Cardona were appointed as directors to Healey Properties upon its formation, which according to the ICIJ database, was January 1999. What is clear is that legal let- ters sent between involved par- ties suggest that the Bajadas were expected to collect the rents and pass them on to Hea- ley Properties or AAS Freight Services, but the beneficial owner of these two companies is not yet established. In one letter dated 15 Decem- ber 2003, Roger Pitts Tucker – the lawyer working on behalf of "AAS Freight Services Ltd, Healey Properties Ltd, and oth- ers" – wrote to Carter Lemon Camerons (CLC), the firm rep- resenting Emmanuel, aka Lolly, and wife Eve Bajada, claiming the Bajadas had yet to forward all the rent accumulated from 1999 to the companies. Three days later – according to the 19 December 2003 letter to Delia that was published by Caruana Galizia – CLC con- firm that AAS and Healey had instructed Emmanuel Bajada to deposit the rent for all the properties, some £20,000 every month, into Adrian Delia's Bar- clays International account in Jersey. CLC claim the money was never forwarded to the companies. At this point, both Delia and Cardona had already resigned as directors of Healey Proper- ties a few weeks earlier on 2 December, some five months after London police raided the brothels. Crucially, at this stage it has to be said that on 9 September 2003, a San Gwann man – Mar- tin Farrugia – whom sources suggest was well-known in So- ho, became the licensee of 52, Greek Street, an arrangement that confers upon him similar but less onerous obligations than that of a tenant. The licence agreement signed by Farrugia was witnessed by lawyer Marianne Hofstedt of Carter Lemon Camerons, who are also acting as lawyers for the Bajada couple. Some time down the road, 23 April 2004, a letter from Pitts- Tucker (lawyers for Healey) now pertain to be writing on behalf of Martin Farrugia, who is described as having rented out the properties to Eve Ba- jada, Emmanuel's wife. "We have been asked to act for Mr Martin Farrugia, who took a rental agreement from [Hea- ley Properties Ltd] for [vari- ous properties in Mayfair and Soho]. Mr Farrugia permitted you to manage these properties on his behalf in his absence, as can be evidenced from his own bank statements," – the Pitts- Tucker letter says. The letter goes on to state that Ms Bajada "was allowing the premises to be used for the purposes of prostitution" and that she had "not accounted to Mr Farrugia for the entire du- ration of the lettings" and that £800,000 was therefore owed to Farrugia. The letter also says that Hea- ley Properties was intent on holding Bajada responsible for loss of value of the property, which they describe as having "become tainted" after being used as brothels. Surely, there are questions Ownership of Soho property at centre of prostition racket remains a mystery