[LIVE] George Farrugia returns before the PAC: ‘I am protecting nobody’

Welcome to MaltaToday's live blog of the PAC hearing into the Auditor General's audit of Enemalta's fuel procurement policy

EXPLAINER | Auditor General's report on Enemalta fuel procurement

21:31 Session adjourned to 6 February, 2014.

21:26 Jason Azzopardi asks George Farrugia whether he was aware that Tony Debono, together with Labour MEP candidate Miriam Dalli and composer Gerard James Borg had set up a PR company, Peppermint.

Farrugia says he knew about it.

Owen Bonnici intervenes and asks Farrugia whether Tony Debono was involved in Ping.

"Yes he was. Ping in the telephony company of the PN," Farrugia says, adding that the MPs had turned him into a "ping pong".

21:10 Fenech Adami asks Farrugia to say why he think the damage against him occurred in January 2013, in the run up to the general elections when the information was already available in 2010. He says that in 2010, due to the settlement case, it wouldn't have benefited the rest of the company if the emails were to be leaked then.

Farrugia: Publishing in 2013, the result of the damage created would have been bigger.

Fenech Adami: Do you attribute political damage?

Farrugia: I was the one who passed through the damage created.

Fenech Adami: You appreciate that the damage was colletaral.

Farrugia: The biggest damage created was against me.

Fenech Adami: Yes, but you had a finger in the pie.

Farrugia: I'm not saying I didn't do anything wrong.

Fenech Adami: I am asking why it took until 2013 for the information to be published.

Lawyer Franco Debono: I don't think he can answer that question.

Lawyer Siegfried Borg Cole: It didn't make sense for the information to be leaked in 2010 because they were still settling.

Fenech Adami: So why was it leaked after you settled?

21:09 Fenech Adami asks whether all documentation published in 2013 in the media had already been in the hands of people in 2010 following the retrieval of information.

Farrugia confirms.

20:53 Fenech Adami asks whether in 2010, during the meeting with Manuel Mallia who was representing PowerPlan Ltd - for which was also present Joe Azzopardi and Borg Cole was assisting George Farrugia - threats were made using the emails.

George Farrugia says no emails were shown to him, even though these were in his brothers' possession, to be used as a threat.

He says after that meeting with Mallia, no other meetings took place with his brothers. The meeting took place in Joe Azzopardi's office. He says that his nephew, Chris Farrugia, had convinced George's brothers to sign a paper allowing Chris to be the only person to communicate with him.

Chris Farrugia, George's nephew, became CEO of John's Group. "His coup d'etat succeeded and he started heading the company with Tony Debono's backing," George says.

20:52 Farrugia says Manuel Mallia entered the picture because their lawyer, Farrugia Sacco, had been abroad. Farrugia also says Mallia could have been PowerPlan's lawyer or his brothers' lawyer.

20:46 Farrugia says his brothers knew about the kickbacks before the fight with them occurred.

Fenech Adami refers to a meeting in Geneva, September 2010 with Totsa.

Olivier de Richmonte and Nicholas knew about the kickbacks.

Chris Farrugia and Tony Debono, in 2010, knew about the kickbacks. Present for the meeting were Gordon Farrugia and Joe Azzopardi, but as far as George knows, these two were not aware of the kickbacks

"Tony Debono's blue passport was discussed and his role as ambassador. To try to impress. They also discussed that I was siphoning off funds to another company. They also discussed an extension of their contract," he says.

20:41 Geoffrey Farrugia, an IT expert, was asked to retrieve information from George Farrugia's hard disk. Geoffrey Farrugia was chosen by Tony Debono. Geoffrey Farrugia also had a company with Tony Debono and George Farrugia's nephew.

Stephen Farrugia Sacco was the court expert.

They managed to retrieve all information with George Farrugia had deleted.

20:30 Back to Sunday 20 January 2013 when MaltaToday published an invoice showing Trafigura depositing money to Frank Sammut.

Fenech Adami asks if he had a copy of the invoice. Farrugia: "Yes, because it was on the hard disk. The document was in my possession and passed on a copy to the police. I had a hard copy. The emails were on the hard disk."

Fenech Adami asks: "First information was retrieved from his computer and then the issue was raised."

Farrugia: "Yes."

Fenech Adami: "Did you ever give permission so they can access your hard disk?"

Farrugia: "No."

Fenech Adami: "Were you aware of the audit report?"

Farrugia: "Yes."

Fenech Adami: "Can you give us the background?"

Farrugia: "The person who carried the investigative audit was proposed by Tony Debono."

Fenech Adami: "At this stage you are still a director of the company."

Farrugia: "Yes."

Fenech Adami: "What triggered the audit?"

Farrugia: "They called for me and read a letter prepared by Tony Debono with a lot of allegations and addressed to the board. They spoke about the audit report because there were suspicions on me. And we decided on the investigative report. I had signed a letter but later I sent an email, including Tony Debono, where I asked that the signature be revoked because I disagreed with the person who did the report [Joe Azzopardi]."

Fenech Adami: "Do you know what Joe Azzopardi was asked to do?"

Farrugia: "To carry out an investigation."

20:28 He says that on Monday 23 December, he received three threatening calls at home, two of which were answered by his children. In both calls, the caller used foul language and said "I want to ruin your mother".

Farrugia informed the police and a sergeant came over and took a statement from the children, one aged 12 and the other 18.

He denied receiving any threats or anonymous letters since the start of the oil scandal.

Caruana asks whether he fears something bad might happen to him or his family.

"I don't know. I leave everything in God's hands."

20:12 Sitting resumes.

Farrugia tabled a copy of the receipt of the tanzanite (blue diamond), which costs around €600. He also tabled an invoice of €100,000 for the sponsorship of a drag racing team. €50,000 of which had been loaned by Naeem Ahmed.

19:55 Meeting suspended for 10 minutes until Farrugia analyses a document tabled by the NAO.

19:42 Justyne Caruana, who without beating about the bush tells Farrugia that she was not believing what he was saying, advises Farrugia that this was the best time for him to tell the whole truth.

"We are not here to judge you. I am not asking you to justify your actions. But you know what the conditions of the pardon are and you have to shoulder responsibility for that. And we feel that you are being selective in your truth. And there already is a judicial protest accusing you of lying," Caruana says.

Farrugia replies: "Do you think I would risk everything at this stage to protect someone? Do you think I would risk everything after what I passed through? I always replied to your questions whenever I remembered things. I am not protecting anyone. No one."

Caruana warns him that truth always comes out at the end ["iz-zejt dejjem jitla' f'wicc l-ilma"]

19:27 Caruana asks Farrugia how Trafigura obtained information which helped it come up with certain conditions which made it favourable to win tenders, such as credit terms.

According to Farrugia, he together with Trafigura, used "to brainstorm" on how to attract the buyer, including speaking to bunker companies to reach agreement on storage. Including possibility of Oil Tanking storing the fuel and client - who would then be storing at Oil Tanking - would pay when the consignment is lifted.

He says he sometimes spoke to Antoine Galea, Alan Micallef and Karl Camilleri... but not one-to-one meetings.

Asked about the relationship between himself and Karl Camilleri - who had asked Farrugia to help him build the contact list when he left Enemalta - Farrugia said their children went to the same school.

"I sometimes used to pick up my son from school, and he used to pick up his daughter. And when he would see me there, he would speak to me," Farrugia says.

19:17 Reference is made to a fine issued to Trafigura from Enemalta for supplying off spec fuel. "I don't know how they arrived to that figure. I was not involved in the calculation. I was present for the meeting and when the figure was negotiatied. But I have no idea to how they reached it," he said. Present for this meeting discussing the fines were Enemalta officials Antoine Galea, Janice Mercieca and Alan Micallef.

19:09 Caruana refers to an email presented by Saviour Balzan in a libel case instituted by Austin Gatt against MaltaToday. The email 19 January 2005 from Camille Kay of Trafigura, was sent to George Farrugia and Tim Waters. In this email, reference is made to a minister and a meeting and the subject was MOBC.

"If we met, the minister was probably Austin Gatt. I don't remember where. If we met, it was either at the ministry or at his office.," Farrugia says. "What I know is that they wanted to increase storage and another issue was of overcharging by MOBC."

19:07 On Friday 1 February, when Farrugia was informed of the presidential pardon, the two officers present in the room were Assistant Commissioner Michael Cassar and Inspector Gafa, sometimes with their assistants.

18:59 "I don't think you are telling the whole truth. I think you are only telling the partial truth. I want to know whether when you were given the pardon there were any agreements on what parts to speak," Justyne Caruana asks.

George Farrugia replies Caruana's perception was not true.

"Was the pardon an offer or a proposal?" Caruana asks.

Farrugia says it was "niether an offer nor a proposal". "I was in the lock-up and the Assistant Commissioner told me that the then prime minister had offered the pardon."

Caruana asks whether Farrugia knows whether he was aware of any persons who intervened.

"The question as to how the Prime Minister [Gonzi] had reached a decision should be made to him," Franco Debono interjects, adding that questions on how decisions on the presidential pardon were taken should be asked to Gonzi.

"We will ask him don't worry. But, during those 10 days, were there any communications, direct or indirect or through third parties, which affected the decision for the presidential pardon?" Caruana asks, repeatedly calling Franco Debono "lawyer"

Farrugia replies no. "I didn't ask anyone and as far as I know, no one intervened."

18:51 Reacting to reports in the Malta Independent on "secret discussions" between parliamentary secretary for justice Owen Bonnici and PAC chairman Jazon Azzopardi, Bonnici said there were no "secret discussions" but a two-minute meeting to agree on the list of witnesses.

Azzopardi supported Bonnici in his statement.

18:49 Good evening and welcome to this evening's live-blog as the PAC enters into its fourth session with oil trader George Farrugia.