Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/893950
maltatoday SUNDAY 29 OCTOBER 2017 News 3 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Debono formed part of a crime syndicate with Libyan smuggling kingpin Fahmi Bin Khalifa who was arrest- ed in August by a Tripoli militia, and a Sicilian mafia associate, Nico- la Orazio Romeo. Another Maltese associate, Gordon Debono, was ar- rested in Catania on the heels of the police operation 'Dirty Oil'. According to the dossier com- piled by the Catanese prosecutor, the Italian investigators spent two years tapping Debono's Maltese mobile phone – suggesting coop- eration from the Malta Security Services. The interceptions depict Debono as the crucial link that made possible the transportation of Libyan oil to Italian markets, with the help of Gordon Debono, to is- sue false invoices. But it was the role of investi- gative journalists, such as Anne Marlowe and the Wall Street Jour- nal, which tipped the United Na- tions into probing the movements of Debono's ships. From then on, Debono found a brick wall to get his shipments validated by the Chamber of Com- merce in Malta. "I've spoken to the whole world over here in Malta," a frustrated Debono says in a June 2016 call to his Italian market buyer, Marco Porta of Maxcom Bunker SpA. "This woman here is waiting for some email to take a decision, and this son of a bitch… well it's for nothing, because of the minister, she's been signing everything for the last 30 years and she wants to be sure 100%," Debono says, telling Porta he was at the foreign minis- try, seeking clearance for his cargos. But according to the Italian po- lice dossier, at some point Debono would have suggested that the UN report would have retracted certain incriminating paragraphs in his re- gard "thanks to some possible con- nivance with persons close to the minister of the economy". However, no interceptions to this regard were published in the dos- sier. When in 2015 journalist Ann Marlowe's exclusive report on fuel smuggling – 'Why does EU toler- ate Libya's smuggler kingpin as migrants drown?' – was published in the Asia Times, Debono is heard urging caution from his acolytes, to make sure all their documentation is in order. As news of the fuel smuggling op- eration emerged in the Italian press and through the United Nations' experts' report in 2016, intercep- tions by the investigators show a growing apprehension inside the syndicate, to make sure payments for the fuel are cleared and circulat- ed inside their offshore companies. "We have to go to the United Na- tions," Debono is heard telling an associate, after having obtained a certificate of origin from the Libyan National Oil Corporation. "They are just copying what some ass- hole journalist from the Wall Street Journal is writing." The investigators said Darren Debono, Gordon Debono and Nicola Orazio Romeo would par- ticipate in "summits" in Italy with Marco Porta, and then meet Bin Khalifa in Libya. In a bid to hide the illicit origin of the fuel being bunkered out at sea, Gordon Debono would use the company Petroplus Ltd to is- sue false invoices; while Darren Debono and Romeo would use the company Oceano Blu Trading Ltd, as well as other offshore compa- nies in the British Virgin Islands, to hide the flow of money used to pay Bin Khalifa. Once the fuel was bunkered at sea, and then acquired by Marco Porta's Maxcom Bunker SpA in Italy, Porta would use false docu- mentation issued by Petroplus, to hide the origin of the fuel – docu- ments which were, possibly un- knowingly, validated by the Libyan Maltese Chamber of Commerce. Italian investigators tapping the phone-calls from Darren Debono's San Gwann office show Debono trying to convince Porta to buy the fuel for 30c a litre. "Listen Marco, it's Darren… Mr Fahmi [Bin Khalifa] is selling you… you know, if you can help us a little please, we're a family, understand?" Debono was also intercepted coordinating the movements of the ships involved in the bunker- ing of the Libyan oil, showing how he had a handle on the shipping movements carrying the smuggled fuel. Another interception, this time of Marco Porta and a Maxcom employee, makes reference to Nicola Orazio Romeo's connec- tions to the Sicilian underworld. Romeo, linked to the Mafia clan of Santapaola-Ercolano, was revealed by the Panama Papers of having had offshore companies at the same San Gwann address as ADJ Trading, the firm in which both Debono and Bin Khalifa were once shareholders. "Nicola is part of the real under- world, the one nobody touches," Porta tells a colleague. "He's always being tapped when he is in Sicily." Debono found brick wall after smuggling ring was exposed in newspapers MATTHEW AGIUS LAWYER and opposition MP Ja- son Azzopardi has rubbished the threats of ruinous lawsuits made by Pilatus bank to several local media houses and called on the govern- ment to protect the press - and of- fer immunity from prosecution to Pilatus bank employees, both past and present, who reveal "potential crimes" committed or facilitated by the bank. "I believe that Pilatus Bank has no jurisdictional nexus with the US," explained Azzopardi. "Because with the US for there to be domi- cile, there has to be a meaningful and necessary presence. It's a fact that Pilatus has no meaningful presence in the United States." Azzopardi said that several law- yers had agreed that there was "ab- solutely no basis whatsoever" for a defamation suit to be filed in a US court by Pilatus against any person in Malta, "more so when the re- ports were reproducing incontro- vertible evidence." "On this score, we challenge gov- ernment to do two things, if it really wants to protect the media," con- tinued the lawyer. " Number one: enact legislation to protect media houses and any journalists in Malta who are facing spurious lawsuits and number two: grant Presidential pardons to those employees of Pi- latus bank who come forward with anything that could be a potential crime." "Thanks to a post on Daphne Caruana Galizia's blog on May 31st, I got to know that there was a chain of emails between Joseph Muscat using his Josephmuscat. com email address, Keith Schem- bri, Owen Bonnici and Christian Kalin ...conspiring for Henley to file libel cases in the UK against Caruana Galizia, myself and two media houses in Malta. This was evidently intended to stifle free- dom of expression, just like Pi- latus is frivolously doing in Malta with respect to claims that it was a money laundering machine. These are facts that are in the public domain." Pilatus bank's threats of libel in US courts, is stifling freedom of expression, he said. "They do not have a leg to stand upon, or even jurisdiction. What is the govern- ment going to do to protect any person, especially journalists who upload stories facts such as the ones we're talking about here?" "Secondly why doesn't the gov- ernment offer a Presidential par- don to all former employees of Pilatus bank if they reveal any potential wrongdoing? This is an exceptionally unique case and with what happened to Daphne I think it assumes even greater proportions. The Prime Minister has said that he wants to get to the truth. One way of getting to the truth is by giving ...an incen- tive for people to come forward and reveal wrongdoing." Azzopardi said all efforts should be aimed at doing "all that is humanly and legally pos- sible to uncover the truth. One of the best methods is precisely giv- ing presidential pardons to bank employees." MP Jason Azzopardi rubbishes threats of lawsuits by Pilatus Bank Darren Debono was arrested in Lampedusa the day after Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed