Montebello developers acquitted of bribery

The owners of building contractor JPM Brothers have been acquitted of bribing the private secretary of Tonio Fenech, the former finance minister.

Noel Borg Hedley had admitted to receiving bribes from Peter and Jeffrey Montebello of JPM Brothers, in the form of donations to the campaign for Fenech, in return for reducing fees owed to government departments.

The story was broken by MaltaToday when it faced Borg Hedley with the allegation, who admitted to having collected the monies and then used his influence to waive the fees.

Magistrate Audrey Demicoli said the prosecution had rested on Borg Hedley's admission that he had received four cheques amounting to €2,000 in the form of "appreciation" for his work. But it was not proven that the money had been given to Borg Hedley before the crime was committed.

The former private secretary had admitted to MaltaToday in November 2010 of receiving kickbacks from developers JPM Brothers, to intervene with governmental departments to have fines waivered or reduced on under-declared property sales. Tonio Fenech had denied having any commercial relationship with JPM Brothers when asked about the fact that the same donors were allegedly said to have carried out works on his house "as a favour" by a sub-contractor of theirs.

This allegation was already denied by Fenech in 2009. JPM Brothers were alleged by the sub-contractor of having wanted the ministry to intervene in the potential sale of the Jerma hotel in Marsaskala, to magnates George Fenech and Joe Gasan, who later presented the Prime Minister with plans to turn the area into a 'Portomaso of the South' - plans that floundered when the PM, as minister for environment, was informed that the hotel could not be turned into luxury residential development according to planning policy.

While the Jerma Palace remained unsold and a huge liability for the Montebellos, another failed project by JPM Brothers was the Mistra Heights complex, which also led to Bawag Bank calling in a loan for €42 million.

The former Galaxy Hotel site in Sliema - which had to be turned into a residential complex - was left uncompleted, and led to investors to take over the building and develop it after buying out JPM Brothers.