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MT 17 December 2017

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maltatoday SUNDAY 17 DECEMBER 2017 12 News PN amendment on motion falls short of censuring government decision PAUL COCKS THE Nationalist Party will be pro- posing an amendment to a motion, due to be discussed in Parliament tomorrow, calling for a broad con- sultation with all interested parties, but without urging the government to reverse its decision to extend the open time windows for hunting in the Majistral Park. The motion had been tabled in the House on 23 November by Partit Demokratiku's Godfrey Far- rugia, who called for a restriction in the time windows open for hunting at the park in the north of the is- land, which also includes the Simar national reserve. He had claimed that the time windows had been extended to beyond 10am, when no hunting had originally been al- lowed within the park grounds. MaltaToday revealed yesterday that three prominent PN MPs - Clyde Puli, Hermann Schiavone and Carm Mifsud Bonnici - were pushing to have the party vote against the original motion ahead of a parliamentary group meeting hst- ily convened yesterday afternoon. But sources said that many MPs were questioning how the PN could support the decision to ex- tend the time windows, when even the government-appointed Majjis- tral Park board had objected to the decision. Members of the parliamentary group told MaltaToday they were worried that the new leader - Adri- an Delia - was too eager to align the PN with Labour on major policies. In the amendment agreed upon by the group and which will be presented on Monday, the PN ac- knowledged the fact that the board, which included Nature Trust, Gaia Foundation and Din l-Art Helwa, had unanimously opposed the time window extension. But it still fell short of calling on the government to reverse its deci- sion, recommending instead that "all interested parties are are con- sulted on order to reach a decision". PN MPs also complained that they had only been notified yester- day morning of the parliamentary group meeting that was being held in the afternoon, with many saying they would not be able to attend. When contact,ed Schiavone would not confirm if he had pushed for the parliamentary group to shoot down Farrugia's motion. "All I can say is that I would per- sonally never vote in favour of a mo- tion presented by an other party," he said. "It is the PN that sets the opposition's agenda." MaltaToday reported earlier that the same had happened yes- terday, when many key members of the party's executive commit- tee were not given enough notice to attend a meeting in the after- noon, during which the party decided to formally dissolve the coalition with the PD. MATTHEW VELLA LONDON Metropolitan Police arrested the mystery trader Emil Amir Ingmanson, on the strength of a warrant from Swedish prosecu- tors in connection with investiga- tions into Falcon Funds, a pension that was once run from Malta. The pension fund has been del- isted from the Swedish pension system and in Malta, the financial regulator issued reprimands for di- rectors Tonio Fenech, the former PN Nationalist finance minister, Jo- seph Xuereb and Ian Zammit. Ingmanson was a prime mover behind Falcon Funds, having pro- moted it with the Swedish pensions authority, and later planned to take control of the pension fund's investment decisions through his own firm, Falcon Asset Manage- ment, which he set up in Malta. His arrest took place at London Heathrow airport early Thursday at 6.55am GMT. On Friday he faced a judge in London, who must decide within two days whether the trader can be extradited to Stockholm. Swedish prosecutors are now sus- pecting that €6.4 million from the Falcon Funds pension fund were transferred to a Swedish company, whose CEO was also arrested this week. Swedish police said the arrests were the result of "long-term co- operation between law enforce- ment agencies in Sweden, Norway, Malta, Italy and the United King- dom. The EU agencies Europol and Eurojust (EU judicial cooperation body) have also been very impor- tant in the matter." Ingmanson recently changed his name to Max Emil Serwin, having lived in London for some time after first setting up shop in Malta. Fal- con Funds has sued Ingmanson in a bid to prevent him from selling off his €1.6 million Sliema apartment. In Sweden, he could face some 23 charges of securities fraud dating from 2013 into an unlawful merger of pension funds that later became Falcon Funds, which was set up as a Maltese SICAV and marketed to Swedish clients on the private pen- sion platform. Fugitive in Malta bust arrested MAJJISTRAL PARK HUNTING TIME WINDOWS

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