Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/867386
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 30 AUGUST 2017 5 News about Martin Farrugia's role in the affair, whether he could have been more than just a licensee of the properties, whose rental payments were definitely passed on to Eve Bajada. 'Brown leather diary' It is clear from the contents of the evidence presented in Harrow Criminal Court, that Eve Bajada was involved in the periodic collection of rent from the properties, with evidence from notebooks be- longing to Gadzijeva showing a number of entries like "11/4 Eve took rent for 6. I settled with bosses" and "14/4 £6000 need to give to Eve. With Mu- ru there is £18000 + £6000 = £24000. Eve took". It must also be said that neither Eve nor her husband, were charged or involved in the proceedings which found Gadizjeva and her associates, guilty. Later, in 2005, Emmanuel Bajada would however be charged with running two brothels in Malta and of living off the proceeds of prostitu- tion. His defence counsel in the case was Chris Cardona. Bajada was found guilty in 2010. Unanswered questions On the face of it, it could be that the Bajadas were op- erating independently from the owners of the properties, however Caruana Galizia has also claimed that the two companies that own the Lon- don properties belonged to Eucharist Bajada, Emmanuel's brother. MaltaToday has not seen any documentary evidence of this, however, if true, the fact that two brothers require so many middlemen in order to pay one another rents, raises questions of the type of op- eration being used to process the ill-gotten earnings. An important clue is the fact that the licence document showing Martin Farrugia signing as the licensee of the properties, was witnessed by barrister Marianne Hofstedt, of Carter Lemon Camerons. But in the 15th December letter, Hofstedt is addressed by Pitts-Tucker as the lawyer for Emmanuel and Eve Baja- da. In this letter, Pitts-Tucker is now saying he acts for Mar- tin Farrugia, apart from Hea- ley Properties. A month later, on 15 January 2004, Carter Lemon Camer- ons tell Pitts-Tucker they are no longer engaged by Emma- nuel Bajada. Questions about Delia's involvement There is nothing indicating that Delia was directly in- volved in the operation or that he was aware of it. Daphne Caruana Galizia insists the properties were acquired by Eucharist – with whom Delia owns a 1% share- holding in a Malta company. He is the older brother to con- victed brothel-keeper Emma- nuel Bajada, the man whose wife dealt with the head of the London prostitution ring; and also the father of Eucha- rist 'Kris' Bajada, formerly the husband of outgoing PN lead- er Simon Busuttil's sister. Delia holds a 1% share in Eucharist snr's Patience De- velopments Limited, adding a level of proximity on the part of Delia. The documents may appear to validate Delia's claims that the owners of the proper- ties, upon discovering that property was being used for prostitution, sought to evict them, and eventually sold off the property. But in the process, people like Martin Farrugia and Mark Barbara were transferred ownership, partly or wholly. The ques- tion is whether Delia was fully aware that his Jersey account was used as a conduit for the 'prostitution rent' to be passed on to Healey Properties, its owner, or other straw-men in- volved in the operation. So after the police raid on Greek Street in July 2003, Land Registry titles indicate that the Greek Street prop- erty became partly owned by Maybole Development Corporation, a BVI offshore company, but also by Mark Barbara – today in the em- ploy of minister Chris Car- dona. And in early December 2003, both Delia and Car- dona resigned as directors of the company. MATTHEW VELLA Three people were found guilty in 2004 at Harrow Crown Court following a five- month investigation by the London metropolitan police's Vice Unit into a lucrative crime business involving brothel premises in Mayfair and Soho. Operation Pabail started in February 2003, culminating in a number of premises in Cen- tral London being raided in Ju- ly – brothels operateding on an almost 24-hour basis and using women from predominantly Eastern European countries. The persons charged and found guilty included Guilnara Gadzijeva, 36; she was sen- tenced to six years in total on six counts of controlling pros- titutes and two years to run concurrently for two charges of false imprisonment. Her husband Vethasalem Muruganathan, a shopkeeper, of Gunnersbury Avenue was sentenced to three years in to- tal for six counts of living off immoral earnings. Olga Chukanova, 30, a Rus- sian of High Street, Acton, re- ceived three and a half years in total for five counts of control- ling prostitutes. Gadzijeva was the driving force behind the operation, recruiting women from Lithu- ania, Moldova, and other East- ern European countries, who were duped as to what they were expected to do in the UK, expecting to be employed as domestics. Gadzijeva would arrange false identification documents and travel arrangements for the women. She and Muruga- nathan, would meet them on their arrival to the UK, and take them to a holding address in Acton, to be indoctrinated before being made to work as prostitutes. Once in the UK, Gadzijeva would instruct the women to make bogus asylum applica- tions. The women were controlled through fear and coercion, and if they did not comply with her working conditions, she would issue threats against their fam- ilies back home in their coun- try of origin. Chukanova was employed as a trusted maid to control the day to day running of the premises. The five brothels were lucra- tive and made several thou- sands of pounds from the ex- ploitation of the women. The women lived at the brothels and as such they were open 24 hours a day. The couple lived a lucrative lifestyle; on one occasion, they purchased a car with £24,000 in cash which they had carried to the car showroom in a hold- all. Police recovered some £750,000 from the houses and searches of safety deposit box- es. PC Carlo Narboni, of the Vice Unit said: "These three defend- ants were ruthless in the way they exploited an immeasur- able amount of women. They led a flamboyant lifestyle, and while they were eating a meal at a restaurant costing £1,300, the women were around the corner earning money for them. This conviction shows that we will not tolerate this type of crime." Brown leather diary Documents seen by MaltaTo- day list 'Eve' as having been a receiver of rent. Notes taken by the lawyers in court indicates that Gadzejeva would pay Eve Bajada $4,000 a month. OPERATION PABAIL 2003: Malta-linked properties at the heart of Soho prostitution racket Guilnara Gadzijeva and Olga Chukanova