Central Bank ‘clears’ Alfred Mifsud of corruption charges

The Central Bank will not take any action against its deputy governor Alfred Mifsud, who has been accused of accepting bribes by his former companion.

A Central Bank spokesperson told the Times that the bank had discussed Anna Zelbst’s allegations internally and agreed that there were no grounds on which to take action against Mifsud.

“In its meeting of June 24, the Central Bank of Malta discussed the allegations that appeared in the media regarding its deputy governor and agreed that there were to date no sufficient grounds on which to make any assessments,” the spokesperson said. “The board informed Mr. Mifsud on the same day that it still retained confidence in him.”

Alfred Mifsud, a former chairman of Mid Med Bank (now HSBC Malta), was originally nominated to succeed Josef Bonnici as governor of the Central Bank, but turned down the offer in light of the corruption allegations. The top job was granted instead to Malta Enterprise’s former chairperson Mario Vella.  

The Opposition has called on Mifsud to suspend himself as the Central Bank’s deputy governor, but finance minister Edward Scicluna has insisted that politicians should not interfere in the bank’s management.

Anna Zelbst had told the Malta Independent columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia that she had witnessed Mifsud accepting payments of LM50,000 (€125,000) three times between 1996 and 1998 from Ronnie Demajo, of the M Demajo Group, ostensibly for the installation of banking software at Mid Med Bank, where Mifsud was chairman.

Mifsud has denied the allegations, filing a libel suit against both Zelbst and Caruana Galizia. He has also accused his former companion of blackmailing him after he refused to settle a list of demands following their separation, which included money, property, monthly allowances, and medical and education expenses for their two children. The couple were never married.

M Demajo CEO Pier Luca Demajo said that his company was oblivious to the allegations that their Eastman banking software was pushed at Mid Med Bank using bribery.

“We are talking about 20 years ago here. Our practice is that we keep records for 10 years. It’s therefore impossible for me to adequately analyze the situation. Generally speaking, we are not a very public group and do not like being thrust into the spotlight this way, but we have to safeguard our interests. We are discussing it at board level and considering our options.”

Mifsud, a long-time Labour supporter who at one time employed Joseph Muscat at Crystal Finance, claimed Zelbst had repeatedly sent him text messages threatening him that she would ruin his chances of becoming Central Bank governor unless he pays her part of proceeds from the sale of Allcare Insurance, one of his firms.

He said that Zelbst was not motivated by “any heroic act to sacrifice herself in order to expose my alleged wrongdoing”, saying that were it so she would have made her accusations in 2015 when he made deputy governor.

“But at the time I was financing her daughter’s grand wedding and her expensive jewellery for the event,” Mifsud claimed. “Ms Zelbst is only speaking now because I did not submit to her demands as shown in the letter dated 1 May 2016. These demands are unreasonable especially coming on top of my offer for her to continue living in my Sliema luxury apartment with all expenses paid and having a leased car fully paid made available to her. This, along with a monthly living allowance which between forfeited rents and recurring expenses amounts to more than €8,000 per month.”