The Education Minister’s former chief canvasser, who is facing serious corruption charges, has put a penthouse he owns in Rabat on sale despite a court order freezing the transfer of all of his property, The Sunday Times of Malta can reveal.

Edward Caruana was also able to transfer two apartments to his sons and sell another in the block he is developing during the time taken by the police to arraign him.

Read: Invoices were falsified, former FTS boss tells court

Mr Caruana, who used to be a canvasser for Evarist Bartolo, suspended himself from his job at the Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools in September 2016 following a scandal involving the alleged embezzlement of hundreds of thousands of euros in public funds, suspected to have been used on his development.

A few weeks ago, neighbours of Mr Caruana’s massive apartment block in St Pius V Street in Rabat informed The Sunday Times of Malta that real estate agents, accompanied by Mr Caruana, were paying frequent visits to the property.

Edward CaruanaEdward Caruana

They started to suspect that despite the court order for Mr Caruana’s assets to be frozen, he was still trying to sell his apartments.

An investigation carried out by The Sunday Times of Malta confirmed the neighbours’ suspicions.

A penthouse on the top floor of Mr Caruana’s apartment block has been put up for sale online by Engel&Volkers for €640,000. It is described as having unobstructed views, and the real estate agency asks potential clients to contact the agency for viewings.

An undercover journalist from The Sunday Times of Malta visited the property. One of Mr Caruana’s sons accompanied the journalist and the sales agent around and explained that a promise of sale agreement could be done within days. Asked about the rest of the apartments and maisonettes in the same block, Mr Caruana’s son said most of them had already been sold.

Research conducted by The Sunday Times of Malta found that during the period when Mr Caruana was under police investigation, before he was officially charged, he had transferred, by donation, an apartment to each of his two sons valued at €150,000 each. In September 2017 he signed a contract selling another of his flats to a private individual for €170,000.

Mr Caruana made these transfers before he had his assets frozen by the court.

According to the law, when a person is arraigned in court and charged with corruption and embezzlement of public funds, all his assets are frozen in order to make sure that he can return the ‘stolen’ money in case of guilt.

A promise of sale agreement can be done within days

The allegations about Mr Caruana first surfaced in the summer of 2016. It took the police until December 2017 – more than 15 months – to bring official charges against him. This appears to have given Mr Caruana ample time to transfer part of his property.

Read: Minister’s chief canvasser charged with corruption, fraud

A criminal lawyer told The Sunday Times of Malta that while the current attempt by Mr Caruana to sell his penthouse defies the court order and the law, the transfers of the other units were not illegal, as Mr Caruana had not yet been arraigned. While the length of time it took for the police to bring charges against Mr Caruana might raise eyebrows, technically he could transfer his properties, as he in fact did, said the lawyer, who preferred not to be named.

Edward Caruana was employed at the Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools and given responsibility for government school projects soon after Labour was elected to power in 2013. On the instructions of Mr Bartolo, he was given a managerial job with a financial package of over €50,000.

In 2015, a Gozitan contractor accused him of soliciting a €30,000 bribe for the contractor to receive payments for work done on the Gozo Sixth Form. Despite the fact that Mr Bartolo received these reports, Mr Caruana kept his position.

A year later, FTS CEO Philip Rizzo tendered his resignation and gave the police a 200-page file with what he said was evidence that Mr Caruana had embezzled hundreds of thousands.

Among the accusations, a contractor reported Mr Caruana was taking a three per cent cut on contracts and had asked him for the delivery of a container of tiles for his apartment block.

In his resignation letter, Mr Rizzo pointed the finger at Mr Bartolo, accusing him of spending weeks trying to persuade him not to report Mr Caruana. Later, Mr Rizzo said he had also given the same information to Prime Minster Joseph Muscat, who also failed to take any action.

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