A Gozitan company at the centre of a police investigation over the provision of consultancy on EU funding insists it has never defrauded any of clients and was itself the victim of a scam.
Christian Abela, who runs Refca, said the only victim was his agency which ended up providing assistance to fill in the laborious and time-consuming applications and gaining nothing in return.
Mr Abela said the agency did not charge a single cent to any of the applicants since, as a rule, it only gets paid a commission fee once funds are acquired.
Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil filed the police report after a number of those who used Refca’s services alerted his office to suspicious letters of rejection that were received supposedly from the European Commission.
Mr Abela said his agency received information from a Spaniard working in another EU country on a particular programme. Refca distributed the information to its members about how to apply to this programme and then submitted the necessary applications on behalf of the interested applicants free of charge.
“My clients received a letter after some time which looked very strange and unconventional to my eyes. We immediately verified with the national authorities in Malta and my partners in Brussels as to the veracity of this ‘programme’. After a few days, another one of our partners in Brussels informed us this programme was a scam,” he said.
Refca immediately contacted its clients and apologised for the inconvenience, he added.
Mr Abela said he was surprised that Dr Busuttil got to know about the story since the company and its clients never spoke to the MEP.
He said it was unacceptable that his clients received an e-mail from Dr Busuttil’s office informing them that a journalist from The Times would contact him shortly to ask for more information.
“There is a legitimate question to be posed: How did Dr Busuttil obtain the e-mail address of our clients?... Is it possible that the national authority actually leaked the sensitive information to Dr Busuttil?”
Mr Abela said Refca, set up a year ago, has been successful in assisting Gozitans tap funds, helping eight people benefit from the European Social Fund, three fishermen and two folklore groups benefit from other EU funds and a number of youths who participated in the Youth in Action programme through its contacts abroad, since the Maltese programme is currently suspended.
It also assisted one of the main theatres in Gozo to submit its application relating to a particular alternative energy programme.
When contacted for comments a fortnight ago, Mr Abela had opted not to give details about the case – confirming only that an investigation was taking place and that he was cooperating with the police.
When contacted, Dr Busuttil pointed out Mr Abela admitted the scam, which is why he filed the police report in the first place.
“It therefore confirms my suspicions of criminal behaviour. He also admits to having propagated an EU funding scam even if he claims to have done it without knowing that it was, in fact, a scam.
“This is not much help to the farmers who fell victim to the scam. But regardless of whether he did it unknowingly or unwittingly, faced with a complaint about a possible fraud, my only course of action was to file a report with the police.”
Dr Busuttil insisted he did not receive any information from the authorities but received an e-mail from one of the complainants who first called his office.
“I do hope the police may conclude their investigation as soon as possible because scams of this nature undermine public trust in EU funding schemes and this cannot be right.
“Perhaps you can ask the police what course of action they will take once it has been established this was indeed a scam on the admission of the person who propagated it,” the MEP said.