Auditor Joe Sammut released on police bail

Auditor Joe Sammut was released on police bail after being held for questioning over allegations of aiding Libyan nationals obtain a residency permit by creating fake companies.

Sammut was questioned at length by the Economic Crimes Unit over the registration of hundreds of Libyan companies in Malta

On Tuesday, Libyan national Arab Ali Khalefa, 44, admitted falsifying company information to obtain a residency permit. He got an 18-month prison sentence suspended for four years and will be deported.

Police investigations revealed that Khalefa did not know how to speak English, despite his claims, and was not aware how many shares he possessed in the company. Khalefa’s lawyer asked the court for clemency and to understand the “desperate” situation in Libya that forces people there to do certain things to leave.

Sammut, a former treasurer of the Labour Party, was for years a close associate of the Gaddafi family.

Muammar Gaddafi’s son Mutassim was the sole shareholder in Capital Resources Ltd, set up in June 2010 by Sammut to hold all assets under Gaddafi’s assumed name Muatasimbllah Muammar Abuminyar, in Malta.

For years Libyan businessmen fleeing turmoil in their country have being finding ‘asylum’ at the Mosta offices of chartered accountant Joe Sammut.

Sammut housed the operations of Sealandair Energy International, an oil trading concern owned by Tunisian brothers Ghazi Mellouli and Maher Mellouli that was highly active in Libya’s oil market.

Among Libyan firms which have found safety in Sammut’s office are Mabco Holding, which operates in the real estate and tourism sectors, run by businessman Jalal Baayou, and Ferasa International Trading & Construction, which is owned by Zuhir Abdusalam Almuntasar who works in the oil services trade.

Others are more discreet firms like Lamar International Group, headed by Naser al Jerrari), Jawal, headed by Abdulmoneim Abulghasseim, and West Tripoli and Tripoli Stone Company.