Tabone held two HSBC Swiss accounts, deposited €880,000

The former chairman of the Enemalta corporation, Tancred Tabone, held two HSBC accounts with the global bank’s Swiss private branch, the data of which has been leaked in an international collaboration that has disclosed tax avoidance attempts by the bank and its clients.

Tabone is facing criminal charges related to the bribery by Trafigura agents in Malta of Enemalta officials for the procurement of oil, mainly on the basis of testimony by pardoned oil trader George Farrugia, who organised the kickbacks.

According to reports in The Guardian today, HSBC set up a Jersey offshore trust into which he deposited €880,000 ($1 million) and that planned to transfer in more funds.

“The bank wrote enthusiastically, noting ‘the potential is evaluated [at] over US$10m’, noting Tabone was ‘personally known by… HSBC Malta’.”

His lawyer has told The Guardian that he “formally authorised the Swiss authorities to provide all that information … His fiscal affairs in that respect are in order.”

Tabone, whose political appointment at the helm of Enemalta came to an end in 2005, is one of the island’s main entrepreneurs. He denies all criminal charges against him.

There is no suggestion that Tabone, who is still facing charges of bribery and corruption in the procurement of oil for Enemalta, could have been concealing undeclared cash.

Tabone is accused of having accepted bribes from George Farrugia to facilitate the award of oil procurement contracts to either Trafigura or Totsa, both represented by Farrugia’s firm.

• January 2013: Trafigura paid kickback to Frank Sammut

• Secret Panama company Sammut used to hide Enemalta conflict of interest

MaltaToday broke the story in January 2013 that Trafigura had paid MOBC chief executive Frank Sammut a sum of money in the form of a commission for the supply of oil to Enemalta. Sammut was later retained by Tabone as a consultant to Enemalta.

Together, the two men set up bunkering firm Island Bunker Oils, retaining a secret interest in the company which was fronted by Francis Portelli and Anthony Cassar. Both men also face similar bribery charges as Tabone and Sammut.

The Swissleaks information was obtained through an international collaboration of news outlets, including the Guardian, the French daily Le Monde, BBC Panorama and the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, reveal that HSBC’s Swiss private bank colluded with some clients to conceal undeclared “black” accounts from their domestic tax authorities.