Pardoned oil trader George Farrugia was interrogated by the police over fresh allegations that he tried to curry favour with public officials.
The man at the centre of the Enemalta oil procurement scandal was questioned at police headquarters on his return from Rome, where he was on a short business trip. He gave the police a statement and was released.
Mr Farrugia faces the prospect of losing his pardon after Malta Today published new e-mail exchanges on Sunday and yesterday purporting to show close connections with government and Enemalta officials in the post-2005 period.
As a representative of foreign oil companies Trafigura and Total, Mr Farrugia has admitted paying commissions to Enemalta officials to secure oil supply tenders. However, according to what Police Commissioner Michael Cassar told Parliament’s public accounts committee last November, Mr Farrugia had no information about the post-2005 period.
The latest cases are from 2008 and 2009.
The pardon granted in February 2013 came with the condition that Mr Farrugia was to tell all about the oil buying scandal revealed by Malta Today in January of the same year.
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said the pardon could be withdrawn if police investigations into the revelations showed Mr Farrugia did not say everything he knew about the oil scandal.
However, legal experts told Times of Malta on Tuesday that the removal of the pardon would be unprecedented and not a straightforward matter.
On Sunday, Malta Today published e-mails which allegedly showed Mr Farrugia brokering UK football tickets from a foreign oil company executive for Malta Resources Authority energy regulation head Godwin Sant.
The incident allegedly happened in 2009.
Mr Sant was interrogated by the police on Monday and suspended by the government pending investigations.
Malta Today yesterday released another set of e-mails that allegedly show great familiarity between Mr Farrugia and Emmanuel Mizzi, head of the shipping unit at Enemalta’s petroleum division. This exchange allegedly took place in 2008.
So far, several former Enemalta officials, including former chairman Tancred Tabone, oil consultant Frank Sammut and former financial controller Tarcisio Mifsud have been charged in court over alleged corruption and bribery.
The names of Mr Sant and Mr Mizzi have never cropped up before.
kurt.sansone@timesofmalta.com