Tonio Fenech ‘satisifed’ that bribes aide took were not in his name

Updated with Tonio Fenech's comments at 4:54pm

Noel Borg Hedley, 67 of Gzira was this morning charged with having received money from developers JPM Brothers so he could ‘fix’ fines on property valuations within departments that fall under the finance ministry.

Borg Hedley – who is currently a director of Gozo Channel Company Limited - admitted the charges and was permanently interdicted and conditionally discharged for three years. Lawyers Franco Debono and Charmaine Charret appeared for Borg Hedley.

In comments to MaltaToday, Tonio Fenech expressed "satisfaction" that the police investigations established that his former secretary was taking bribes that were not in his name.

However when questioned about Borg Hedley's original admission of collecting donations for the minister's political activities, Fenech said "this was not the case... I have many activists who collect money for political activities but not directly for political campaigning."

Fenech said Borg Hedley has not formed part of his secretariat since 2007.

The former private secretary to finance minister Tonio Fenech had admitted to have received kickbacks from developers JPM Brothers with MaltaToday back in November 2010, for intervening with governmental departments to have fines waivered or reduced on under-declared property sales.

Tonio Fenech 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.

Borg Hedley had admitted to MaltaToday in November 2010 that he initially collected money from the Montebellos as donations to the minister’s political campaign, but then said that he also pocketed some cheques in return for his intervention with departments that fall under the finance ministry.

Borg Hedley said he collected the cheques signed to his name and his wife’s, then cashed the cheques to pay for the minister’s electoral campaign. Shortly after his admission to MaltaToday, he reportedly called Tonio Fenech admitting to having pocketed payments from Montebello brothers Peter and Jeffrey in exchange for his intervention on fines related to the under-valuation of property sales.

The minister immediately referred the case to the Commissioner of Police who initiated investigations.

Tonio Fenech had categorically denied knowing of donations from the Montebello brothers for his campaign: “I never intervened to favour Montebello in any way,” he said.

The former official had originally alleged he was instructed by the minister to collect donations from several contributors. “Amongst them were JPM Brothers, and I would go to their office to collect the cheques made in my name. I paid for the electoral expenses myself,” Borg Hedley had said.

Tonio Fenech said he did not know of these donations. “In our political system we depend on our helpers to raise money for our activities, but I never received any monies directly from the Montebello brothers,” Fenech said.

Fenech had also told MaltaToday his political activities attracted a wide range of constituents, and admitted knowing the Montebellos from his Birkirkara constituency, but the allegations about having intervened in the Jerma sale were “false and untrue… I never ever intervened to favour Montebello in any way.”

JPM and Tonio Fenech

The same JPM Brothers had been engaged by the finance minister to carry out works on his Balzan residence in 2009.

As mega-developers – they were formerly constructing the Mistra Heights development that went belly-up after a loan call-in – they engaged a sub-contractor to take over works at the Fenech residence.

But when the sub-contractor was not paid his full dues, he revealed to MaltaToday that Peter Montebello had told him the works were “a favour” for the minister’s intervention in the sale of the Jerma Hotel.

As it turned out, the Montebellos wanted to sell their hotel to magnates George Fenech and Joe Gasan, who had presented the Prime Minister their plans to transform the Jerma Palace Hotel into a potential ‘Portomaso of the south’, back in the summer of 2010.

Angling for an urgent sale of the property they had purchased a year before, JPM Brothers were hoping they could settle some outstanding loans with banks and creditors. According to Charles Magro, the director of the sub-contrator Rainbow Projects, it was this sale that Montebello needed to pay him for works on Fenech’s house.

The failure of the sale led to problems inside Casa Fenech: Rainbow demanded payment from Montebello, who was not forthcoming. So Tonio Fenech decided to take matters in hand and pay Rainbow directly. But disagreement ensued between Fenech and Rainbow’s director on the costs. After refusing to push his prices downward, Rainbow’s director Charles Magro blew the whistle, coming out in the open to say that Montebello’s works inside Fenech’s home had been “a favour”.