Bartolo says police must investigate ‘politically responsible’ for Montenegro scandal

Foreign minister Evarist Bartolo has admitted the alleged profiteering of Yorgen Fenech on the acquisition by Enemalta of a Montenegrin wind energy project, has “destroyed Malta’s reputation as a country”.

Bartolo, who served as education minister under former prime minister Joseph Muscat, said he agreed with PM Robert Abela that the allegations published by Reuters and the Times yesterday were “disgusting”.

A money trail has linked Dubai-based company 17 Black to Enemalta’s purchase of a Montenegrin wind farm in 2015, according to a journalistic investigation.

17 Black, owned by Yorgen Fenech, who has been charged with masterminding the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, is understood to have made a profit of €4.6 million from the deal.

The joint investigation by Reuters and Times of Malta sheds light on 17 Black’s operations through this particular deal.

The report says that in December 2015, 17 Black made a previously undisclosed profit of €4.6 million when Malta’s state energy company, Enemalta, bought a wind farm in Montenegro.

Bartolo described Malta as being at a “political eclipse”.

“I agree that whoever was politically responsible must take the first step of their own accord, or else it should be the PM to take action. The case must be investigated and the police must investigate anyone, whoever it may be,” he said.

The Montenegrin project, backed strongly by Joseph Muscat as PM and Konrad Mizzi as energy minister, could implicate not just Yorgen Fenech but potentially Muscat’s former chief of staff Keith Schembri. Both Mizzi and Schembri’s secret offshore companies in Panama had named Fenech’s 17 Black, an offshore firm registered in Dubai, as their target client.

“The fight against corruption and money laundering must be done not only because honesty demands so, but because Malta is threatened by a potential grey-listing from international institutions like Moneyval and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)… our country will lose its attraction and competitiveness to investors.”

Bartolo said both the Nationalist and Labour governments had dragged their feet on taking the necessary steps required by Moneyval and the FATF. “Our economy will suffer if it is grey-listed by the FATF. Businesses will find it harder to work from Malta. They will find it harder to find banks to process their transactions. It will cost them more money to prove they are working within the law. That’s why economic growth, the creation of wealth and jobs go hand-in-hand with law enforcement and the fight against economic crime and corruption.”

Bartolo said Malta’s economy depended on the work of the police, prosecuting inspectors and the courts.

“The people accused of corruption, money laundering and tax evasion must be accused in court, and their cases heard swiftly, and their ill-acquired  gains taken away from them. If we don’t do this, concretely, we will be grey-listed… it will be an economic ‘COVID-21’ next year and we will suffer to emerge from that pandemic.”