Bank of Valletta is investigating a loan worth millions granted to a businessman who paid for a hotel stay in London for the bank’s executive head of corporate finance.
Evidence seen by this newspaper has emerged showing that the businessman, hotelier Adrian Buttigieg, also paid for the executive chairman of the Planning Authority at the same hotel.
The trip took place in 2014. The trio – Mr Buttigieg, BOV executive Alfred Attard and PA executive chairman Johann Buttigieg, who was then the CEO of Mepa – stayed at the London Royal Garden Hotel.
The booking, worth over €1,200, was paid for using Mr Buttigieg’s credit card, documents show.
The hotel stay roughly coincided with a loan – believed to amount to more than €10 million – granted to the hotelier’s company La Salita Leisure Holding Ltd by BOV. It was also during that period when a permit was granted by the PA for an extension to his hotel in Mellieha, the Maritim Antonine.
Adrian Buttigieg and Johann Buttigieg are good friends.
Asked to explain the reason behind the 2014 trip and the nature of his relationship with Mr Attard, the hotelier said the question impinged on his private life and the private lives of others.
I abide by the principle that as long as no rules or laws or public deeds are breached by people who, like me, are not public figures, then the right to my privacy should prevail
“I regret to inform you that I abide by the principle that as long as no rules or laws or public deeds are breached by people who, like me, are not public figures, then the right to my privacy should prevail,” he said.
Questions were sent to Mr Attard about whether there was any connection between the loan and the trip but the reply initially came back from a spokesman for BOV.
The spokesman said there had been no breach of policy in the loan as the decision to grant it had been taken by a “higher level of authority in line with bank policy”.
However, the bank’s CEO Mario Mallia replied later saying, in reference to the questions, that the bank would be carrying out an internal investigation into the “allegations” made.
The PA executive chairman has denied any wrongdoing, saying he paid for the booking himself. When asked by The Sunday Times of Malta, he was unable to produce proof of payment.
Talking to this newspaper last week, he said he had always declared his conflict of interest when it came to his friendship with Mr Buttigieg and did not involve himself in any decisions related to his friend’s interests.
He said his PA role should not preclude him from maintaining “personal relationships with close friends and family”, while still being subjected to “strict rules of governance and transparency”.
The PA executive chairman’s wife Lorraine Buttigieg is a shareholder in MMB Ltd, in which Adrian Buttigieg is sole director.