[WATCH] Oil trader invoices were taken to PM in 2011, no denial from Gonzi

A member of the Malta Security Services had informed Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi in the summer of 2011 of the invoices and documents pertaining to oil trader George Farrugia's activities, after having been accused by his family of siphoning some €6 million in commissions on oil imports from family business Powerplan.

MaltaToday today asked Gonzi about the fact that a member of the MSS had come personally to him in the summer of 2011 to inform him of Farrugia's activities and his company Aikon Ltd with the related invoices: Gonzi had told the officer to report the allegation to the Commissioner of Police, without taking any further ownership of the matter.

Asked about this in an impromptu question and answer session with the press at the University of Malta, the prime minister did not deny having been informed of the Farrugia invoices: 

"I have always insisted publicly, that whenever I had any information, I would always refer it directly to the Commissioner of Police, because it is the duty of all constitutional authorities to take responsibility for such investigations, and they have the power that the law gives them to make these investigations. And that's what I did as my duty was.

"Any report, whatever it was or wherever it came from, was passed on to the authorities [to investigate]," Gonzi said.

Gonzi refused to elaborate any further when asked about what he knew on the case concerning Aikon Ltd, the oil trading company Farrugia used to import fuel from Trafigura and Total, and who is now suspecting of having devised a kickbacks system for Enemalta officials. He took no further questions.

But last week, finance minister Tonio Fenech revealed that a tax investigation by the Tax Compliance Unit in Aikon Ltd, launched in August 2011, had originated from the MSS and then passed on to his secretariat. The documents were given to the TCU, and not the economic crimes unit.

The tax investigation is believed to have focused on under-declaration of taxation, although Fenech had also said the TCU failed to connect Aikon Ltd to oil trader George Farrugia.

News of the tax investigation was broken by The Times two weeks ago, but Fenech has denied having known of the case or that it involved oil trader George Farrugia, who has turned State's evidence on the payment of kickbacks from Trafigura to Enemalta officials on fuel oil procurement.

The minister later revealed that it had been the MSS that passed on the documents to his head of secretariat Alan Caruana, who passed them on to the TCU without seeing what the documents were, and without informing the minister.

Fenech said it was the first time since being appointed minister that a tax probe was being requested by the head of the secret service. Both the MSS and the TCU are not answerable to the finance ministry.

Fenech however was informed that the TCU's investigation, dealing with invoices covering the period 2004-2010, had only focused on the shareholders of Aikon Ltd at the time, a nominee company called Intershore Fiduciary Services. The nominee company had however resigned its services to Farrugia's Aikon Ltd in January 2011, after Farrugia was sued by the John's Group on allegedly hiving off profits from Powerplan to Aikon Ltd.