Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia had no knowledge of any corruption in the procurement of fuel, while former minister Austin Gatt was never given any donation, according to John’s Group chief executive Chris Farrugia.

Effectively contradicting details given by his uncle, pardoned oil trader George Farrugia, during a Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee on Monday, Chris Farrugia claimed everyone was in the dark over what was happening, including Mr Farrugia’s own brothers who were shareholders in the company he was running, PowerPlan Ltd.

Had we given him a donation I would have remembered

Chris Farrugia told Times of Malta that a verification exercise conducted so far found “no trace” of any cash donations, neither to Dr Gatt or anyone else.

“So far no cash donations were found. There is no trace that in 2008 we gave any cash donation. Definitely, there was nothing of the sort but if he (George Farrugia) made the donation himself, I do not know. Only he can tell you,” he said, when contacted.

‘We never gave Gatt donations’

He said he also found it difficult to muster how his other uncle, Ray Farrugia, could have sent his brother, George Farrugia, to hand a donation on his behalf.

Oil trader George Farrugia had been granted a presidential pardon in return for information on corruption in the trade of oil and supply of oil products to Enemalta Corporation.

The Office of the Prime Minister had said in February that the pardon was being granted on the condition that Mr Farrugia discloses the whole truth.

Quizzed on whether Dr Mallia, who in 2010 was the group’s lawyer during litigation with George Farrugia, knew about the whole corruption scandal which surfaced earlier this year, Chris Farrugia replied: “I can assure you that neither Manuel Mallia, nor any of us, knew about it.”

His version was corroborated by George Farrugia’s brother, Ray, who said there was no such donation to Austin Gatt.

“I can assure you that we never gave Austin Gatt any donations, otherwise I would remember something of the sort. Was it made up? I do not know but I do not remember anything. Had we given him a donation I would have remembered. Austin was a person who did everything by the book,” Ray Farrugia said.

“He never did any favours for us. We never got anything from him,” added.

The PAC heard last Monday that Dr Mallia had known about bribes being paid by George Farrugia and had threatened to report him unless he reached an agreement being negotiated with the group.

Asked what Dr Mallia had told George Farrugia in his letters, Chris Farrugia said: “He warned him that if he did not come to an agreement, they would have to take action because we found out he was not declaring his earnings. It was money laundering at the end of the day.”

Chris Farrugia said the group and George Farrugia’s brothers knew nothing about the corruption case and only learnt about it when it first appeared inthe media.

“Although the brothers were shareholders in PowerPlan Limited, they had no idea what was going on because he (George Farrugia) ran the business.

“There was no continuation of business after the litigation and PowerPlan is dormant now because he was the factotum of it all,” he added.

Asked how the group knew nothing when it had commissioned an investigative audit of PowerPlan to see where the funds were going, Chris Farrugia explained that the whole issue which then resulted in a litigation case and an eventual settlement on the part of George Farrugia, revolved around “siphoning of funds”.

“We discovered that when he was invoicing (oil) companies, a small part (of the funds) was directed on PowerPlan while the rest went to Aikon. No one had any idea what was going on. We caught him out in 2010 and according to what he has told the PAC he had stopped (the corruption) in 2006.”

He said former Labour candidate David Farrugia Sacco was not involved in the litigation and that Dr Mallia had sent George Farrugia two letters after they had found invoices to oil giant Totsa with funds being directed to Aikon, a company set up by George Farrugia.

“It was only at this point that we also discovered that he was an agent of Totsa as well as Trafigura,” he said.

He added that had the Farrugia brothers known about it, the business would have continued, if not with Totsa, with “some other company” because “no one had the contacts except him (George Farrugia)”.

“What he is saying that his brothers knew of all this is a big lie. Had the brothers known of all these dealings, the company would have continued after George Farrugia left.

“When we tried to contact Totsa, they told us they only knew George Farrugia,” he said.

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