Enemalta oil scandal | Ship purchases under investigation

Police investigators have set their sights on the purchase of bunkering ships by two businessmen arraigned in court this week over charges of corrupting former Enemalta officials, over the procurement of oil for the state utility Enemalta.

The Malta Independent on Sunday reports that the Enemalta oil kickback case does not only revolve round the oil procurement, but the purchase of a ship or a number of ships is also under investigation.

Two business partners in bunkering firm Island Bunker Oils - Francis Portelli, 63 of Ta' Xbiex, and Anthony Cassar, 63 of Tarxien - were granted bail after they were charged on corruption and money laundering, but not specifically in relation to the alleged kickbacks paid to Enemalta consultant Frank Sammut in 2004 on the supply of oil to the state utility.

They are being charged for their role as directors in Island Bunker Oils and its subsidiaries Eldaren Shipping, Oarsman Maritime, Anchor Oils, FP Holdings, AOH Ltd, Gringrams Holdings, Island Oils Holdings and Anchor Bay Maritime for having corrupted former Enemalta chairman Tancred Tabone and Frank Sammut, the former chief executive of Mediterranean Offshore Bunkering Company Limited (MOBC), between the years 2002 and 2005.

Portelli and Cassar were also charged with complicity to trading in influence in public tenders and committed money laundering.

Portelli and Cassar are shareholders in the same company - Island Bunker Oils - that former Enemalta chairman Tancred Tabone, charged on similar charges, joined in 2008.

The TMIS reported that the case against Portelli and Cassar revolves, at least in part, around the purchase of a ship or a number of ships by Island Bunker Oils or its subsidiaries, which "could very well have been the larger racket - and one that is believed to have leeched directly from the public coffers."

According to the report, Island Bunker Oils operated three ships for bunkering purposes: the M/T Mistra Bay, the M/T Anchor Bay and the M/T Golden Bay and apparently the Tabone led-MOBC had set its sights on at least one of the ships, the M/T Anchor Bay.

However, after MOBC backed out of the deal, the ship was purchased by another company, controlled by Portelli and Cassar, for USD600,000, only to be leased back to the MOBC for USD3,000 a day, at the expense of taxpayers.