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MT 26 November 2017

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maltatoday SUNDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2017 News 3 SAVINGS PLAN Make your vision real Our Savings Plan is the ideal rst step to realise your ambitions. You can choose from a wide range of unit-linked funds as well as our with-prots fund to match your investment preferences. Be smart, start saving now and take advantage from a number of additional benets including Free Life Insurance. Call us to discover our current offers. Citadel Insurance p.l.c. • Casa Borgo • 26 Market Street • Floriana FRN 1082 • Malta • Tel: 2557 9000 • Email: info@citadelplc.com Branches: Ħaż-Żebbuġ • Il-Gżira • Il-Mosta • In-Naxxar • Iż-Żejtun • Paola • San Ġwann • Victoria, Gozo 8007 2322 • www.citadelplc.com Citadel Insurance p.l.c. is a company authorised to carry on general and long term business of insurance and is regulated by the MFSA. Sacked FIAU official vows to release Pilatus docs on Azerbaijan MATTHEW VELLA THE sacked FIAU investigator Jonathan Ferris claims he will produce documents alleging millions of euros were processed by Pilatus Bank for powerful Azerbaijanis. Ferris is seeking an unfair dismissal claim in the Industrial Tribunal after being sacked from the FIAU while still in his pro- bationary period. But the Attorney Gen- eral is arguing that Ferris is still bound by FIAU secrecy requirements, which apply to former employees, and that Ferris's af- fidavit to the tribunal divulges secret FIAU information "illegally and abusively". In comments to The Times of London, Ferris, a former police inspector who is now working as a security manager for a hotel, insisted that the government is at- tempting to stop him publishing further accusations that allegedly detail Malta's mysterious links to Azerbaijan's ruling clan. "I will fight to get this information out, which is really damaging for the state and for the politicians and other government officials involved," Ferris, 44, said. The Attorney General wants to hold the proceedings of the unfair dismissal claim behind closed doors. The Civil Society Network, which organ- ised three demonstrations in the wake of the assassination of Daphne Caruana Gali- zia, said finance minister Edward Scicluna should explain whether he was involved in the sacking of Ferris and Charles Cronin from the FIAU. Scicluna had commented publicly that certain FIAU reports and excerpts of an unfinished investigation had been written up with an intention to be leaked to the press. The FIAU's board is appointed by the fi- nance minister, and is chaired by Attorney General Peter Grech, whom the CSN want dismissed. The CSN said Scicluna had to declare whether he had any involvement in the sacking of the two men after the 2017 gen- eral election. "The Maltese deserve that their institutions truly operate in the inter- est of the common good and do everything necessary to establish the truth with regard to the resignations of Commissioner Mi- chael Cassar and Dr Manfred Galdes and the sacking of Jonathan Ferris and Charles Cronin. A lack of willingness to establish the truth about such vital episodes in our nation's life would mean that in Malta we would have institutional omertà." Labour MP gets Air Malta legal brief MATTHEW VELLA LABOUR MP Robert Abela was paid €10,265 for legal services rendered to Air Malta in 2016, a parliamentary question by Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi has revealed. Abela, whose firm also provides legal services to the Planning Authority, told MaltaToday he had answered a public call and that none of the competing tenderers had appealed the decision. The ministry for tourism said that Abela was appointed by the national airline after a public request for quotations, based on rates and technical competence on indus- trial relations. But Abela did not take kindly to Jason Azzopardi's probing, whose PQs on Ab- ela were made to each individual minis- try. "All these PQs came since I refused to drop a PA warrant for the removal of the PN's illegal billboards, which the courts upheld. The PQs have increased since the PAC was convened on the Spinola trans- fer," Abela said of his role on the public accounts committee's inquiry into a St Julian's land trans- fer, when Azzopardi was parliamentary secretariat for public lands. Jason Azzopardi re- torted that his PQs were tabled back in June, four months before the PAC sessions. "It's evident this multi-tasker is not content with his PA consultancy, but is getting paid for consultancies to Trans- port Malta and the tourism ministry. Doesn't he agree that the public ought to be told how this champagne socialist is being paid for work which should not be the monopoly of a select group of people close to Castille?" For 18 years now, the PA has retained the services of Abela's law firm, which he runs with his wife Lydia, a Labour Party offi- cial. Abela Advocates were paid €110,000 in legal services in 2017, €168,000 in 2016, €110,000 in 2015, and €88,000 in 2014. The firm's three-year contract was ex- tended back in 2013. The firm was originally contracted out by the PA in 2001, when its then head of legal services Anthony De Gaetano ac- cused the authority of mishandling a plan- ning matter concerning his property. The firm was selected through an expression of interest. It was paid over €1.2 million up until 2011. 'Multi-tasker MP' Robert Abela (left), and MP Jason Azzopardi CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The €1.28 million settlement was sup- posed to have led to the cancellation of the garnishee orders. But lawyer Graziella Attard claims in her court case that when this transaction was finalised she was in position to give her consent freely. Company records show that the record of transfer of the Agostino Padre shares to Attard was submitted to the MFSA in March 2016, but the transfer was back- dated to September 2015. Attard wants the court to declare the Oc- tober 2015 settlement null and without ef- fect. A host of lawyers, bank representatives, as well as managers for various bunkering ships and oil tankers, have been asked to testify in the case. Additionally, Khaled Barakat is himself filing a case against Graziella Attard, her company Agostino Padre and another of her companies, KGA Limited. He claims the companies received €2.37 million from KB Petrols Srl, of which €1.3 million had to be paid to him. The agreement, Barakat says, was not respected. Dirty Oil suspects still under arrest Maltese nationals Darren Debono, the for- mer Malta international footballer, and Gor- don Debono, remain under arrest in Catania after they were apprehended by Italian po- lice on 20 October. The two men are suspected of having been prime movers in illegal fuel oil supplied by smuggling kingpin Fahmi Slim Ben Khalifa, to Italian ports where fuel was later sold on European markets. Ben Khalifa was arrested in August by the Tripoli militia Rada Deterrence Force. Another suspect in the smuggling ring was Nicola Orazio Romeo, whose name also ap- pears in the Panama Papers as the holder of several offshore companies connected to Darren Debono and Gordon Debono. Ro- meo was said by Italian investigators to be close to the Santapaola-Ercolano mafia clan. Lawyer filed case to contest Italian's agreement to claim €1.28 million debt Gordon Debono remains under arrest after he was apprehended at Catania airport, while Darren Debono was arrested on Lampedusa island by Italian police

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