Interview 15/09/2002

A businessman’s lone fight for his rights

Three months after MaltaToday published a series of reports on the land scandals in the eighties, the murder of Lino Cauchi and the corruption prevalent at the time, KURT SANSONE meets up with Joseph P. Borg, a protagonist in uncovering the scandals that coloured that black period

He is a man with a common name and an equally common surname. Very discrete and at first instance he does not ring a bell. But Joseph Borg, a self-made businessman who made his money in the construction and property industry, is synonymous with uncovering the land scandals and corruption in the late seventies and eighties.

Mr Borg recalls the first steps that eventually led him to become heavily involved in land deals. "I was a draughtsman and in 1964 a contractor whom I knew encouraged me to start my own business. I sold off the odd garage and gradually I established myself as a property developer."

Work was looking good and Mr Borg took his first bank overdraft some time later. "With my first overdraft I bought the lands known as Ta’ Beligna and Ta’ Zilfa in Fgura," he recounts. Ironically, they were to be the lands that caused him most problems later on when Public Works minister Lorry Sant set his eyes on them. Today he is still in court trying to take back the property that was forcefully taken away from him but a glimmer of hope does exist. After 20 years the present owner of the land has admitted that they belong to Joe Borg.

I query whether Joe Borg knew Lorry Sant and his answer is a plain "no".

"I never had any contact with Lorry Sant. Politics never interested me much. However, I was married to a family with Nationalist sympathies and probably Lorry assumed that I was a Nationalist."

Mr Borg formed his first family company in 1969 and later on teamed up with Victor Balzan.

After 1987 Mr Balzan was arraigned in court over corruption charges along with Lorry Sant and other people close to the former Labour minister. But their case was thrown out of court because the charges were time-barred by law.

Joe Borg explains that he knew Victor Balzan since his youth because they had been neighbours. "He was a friend of mine. While I detested politics Victor befriended politicians from both sides to use them to his advantage. When Lorry Sant was appointed minister in the 1970s Victor strengthened his contacts with Lorry."

Joe Borg insists that he never wanted to be obliged to politicians. This detachment, Mr Borg claims, led people close to Lorry Sant to bad mouth him with the minister. "Towards the late seventies Lorry Sant’s canvassers were spreading the word around that I was campaigning against their minister. The prevalent philosophy at the time was a simple and ruthless one: ‘If you are not with us you are against us.’"

Joe Borg recounts: "Lorry Sant put pressure on Victor Balzan to severe his ties with me. At the time I had a number of companies with Victor. I used to manage the accounts and administer the day-to-day business while Victor faced the politicians when we encountered problems with building permits."

Mr Borg elaborates: "Around 1977 Victor and myself bought a company ZPS Ltd from an Englishman, who was leaving the island. It was a company that dealt in land and property and it had large assets. Foremost was a tract of land in Marsaskala near the St Thomas Bay area, on which Lorry Sant eventually built part of his villa."

The land owned by ZPS was covered by building permits prior to the acquisition of the company by Joe Borg and Victor Balzan.

Mr Borg explains that the company also had two tracts of land in Fgura, one in the vicinity of Musk Street and another in the Tal-Fossi area. Both of these lands were covered by building permits. "After we had acquired these three tracts of land we started facing obstacles from Lorry Sant," Mr Borg recalls.

He describes an incident, which occurred in the late seventies. "A certain Portelli, who was a Lorry Sant canvasser came up to me and said that if I did not give him a plot in the area known as Tal-Fossi the building permits, which had been temporarily withheld would not be issued. The same happened on the other land area in Fgura. Eventually both Victor and myself had to give in to this blackmail and the permits were approved."

The problems encountered in Fgura were relatively small when compared to the troubles the partners had to face over the land in Marsaskala. "This was around 1979," Mr Borg says. "Building permits had been issued for the land in Marsaskala but we were once again blackmailed into signing a promise of sale agreement with another Lorry Sant canvasser known as Ta’ Pac Pac. This man claimed that he was buying the land on behalf of Lorry Sant. Although the land was worth the lucrative sum of Lm80,000 the buyer insisted on acquiring the property for the ridiculous price of Lm13,000 and a convenium was signed under these conditions."

Eventually the building permits were issued before the final contract was signed and in a smart move Joe Borg and Victor Balzan refused to honour the promise of sale agreement and the whole issue ended up in court.

"It was after we encountered these problems that Victor Balzan suggested we create a company with a certain Piju Camilleri," Mr Borg recalls.

At the time Joe Borg did not know that Piju Camilleri was Lorry Sant’s right hand man.

"The newly formed company was called Luqa Developments and Piju Camilleri owned 50 per cent of the shares and Victor and myself owned the other half," Mr Borg remarks.

Piju Camilleri had objected to Joe Borg and Victor Balzan appearing as shareholders of the new company and it was agreed that Piju Camilleri’s father, Andrew should appear in the memorandum and articles of association of the company.

However, a share transfer certificate from Mr Camilleri’s father to Joe Borg and Victor Balzan was signed thus authorising them as shareholders.

"On formation we transferred the land in Marsaskala to the new company," Mr Borg explains. But it was not to be so plain and simple.

"Victor and myself appointed a director, Sammy Cutajar, to represent our interests while Piju was the other director," Joe Borg explains. He adds: "the initial transactions went fine. Victor and myself were receiving our share from the company dealings. But soon after Piju forced our director to resign and he refused to register us as the shareholders. When Piju presented us with the company’s books it transpired that he had made sales worth Lm83,000 and declared expenses amounting to Lm60,000. I did not accept this state of affairs."

The situation dragged on until 1981 and with the election fast looming in the background Piju Camilleri suggested appointing an auditor to arbitrate on the issue and propose a solution. The auditor turned out to be Lino Cauchi, who went missing in February the following year only to be found brutally butchered three years later in a well in Buskett.

I ask Joe Borg whether he knew Lino Cauchi. "The only time I met Lino Cauchi was during two meetings toward the end of November and the beginning of December in 1981. In one of these meetings for which both Victor Balzan and Piju Camilleri were present Lino Cauchi drafted a private agreement, whereby Piju Camilleri had to transfer back to us 36 plots worth around Lm100,000 belonging to Luqa Developments as part settlement of the dispute. Lino Cauchi held this agreement."

This meeting took place four days before the 12 December general election. Joe Borg says that months before the 1981 election Lorry Sant was panicked at the prospect of a Nationalist victory at the polls. Mr Borg recounts how Lorry Sant, through his acolytes, did all he could to obtain property in return for building permits.

"A number of businessmen either under threat or willingly went for this dastardly scheme," Joe Borg says. After the election Joe Borg severed his links with Victor Balzan.

The election came and went and Joe Borg repeatedly chased Piju Camilleri and Lino Cauchi to honour the agreement that was signed prior to the election. But the cat and mouse game continued until February 1982 after which it ended with the disappearance of Lino Cauchi.

Joe Borg recalls that soon after Mr Cauchi’s mysterious disappearance he heard that the Santa Venera accountant was murdered by Lorry Sant’s clique. "Lino Cauchi was the auditor of a number of people in the socialist clique and it seems that the knowledge he had gained about underhand deals and money transfers was a danger to certain people," Mr Borg says.

I ask him about the private agreement that was kept by Lino Cauchi. "It vanished along with Lino Cauchi," Mr Borg answers, adding that he then instituted a court case to have his shareholding rights officially registered.

It was during the evidence pertaining to this court case that Joe Borg made reference to the ‘death’ of Lino Cauchi. "Lino Cauchi was still a missing person because there was no proof that he was dead," Joe Borg explains. However, Joe Borg purposely used the word ‘dead’ because of what he had heard. "But in the transcript of my evidence the assertion that Lino Cauchi was ‘dead’ was later changed to ‘missing’," Mr Borg adds.

Despite repeated attempts by Judge Herrera for the parties to reach an out of court settlement Joe Borg never wanted to give up the case. "I was even manhandled outside Judge Herrera’s courtroom by Piju Camilleri and other bullies for refusing to give up the case," Mr Borg insists.

Joe Borg is not new to threats. In September 1981 during a meeting with Piju Camilleri, Mr Borg was threatened with a bomb. "Piju Camilleri had threatened to blow me up if I refused to sign agreements which he (Piju) had already reached with my partner Victor Balzan," Mr Borg explains.

The bomb threat did materialise in September 1983 when unknown individuals placed a bomb outside Joe Borg’s house in Swieqi. The perpetrators were never caught.

He recalls those frightening moments. "I was not at home at the time but my daughter and her friend were inside. Fortunately nothing happened to them but for months after the explosion we were all living in what seemed to be a very bad dream. My wife and myself just locked ourselves inside the house out of fear."

The bomb conditioned Joe Borg’s behaviour. "I lost my faculty to think properly," he adds.

Joe Borg recounts how a bank manager took advantage of the delicate situation and coerced him into forming a company with an individual who turned out to be a conman.

"The manager did this for his personal gain because this company was destined to failure from step one. The other ‘partner’ falsified cheques and invoices. He was eventually charged in court and after admitting his fraud was set free on a technicality," he says.

But the psychological scar left by the bomb was too big to heal and one and a half years later Joe Borg’s wife passed away. It was another bolt in the blue. Mr Borg recalls a particular incident: "Six months after her death I was walking down South Street in Valletta and I saw a woman enter a shop. I thought it was my wife and darted in after her only to realise that my wife had been dead for six whole months. I was confused."

The double trauma he had to face in the midst of all his trouble with Piju Camilleri and Lorry Sant over the land deals did not deter Joe Borg. He did not cower away. "After my wife’s death I plucked up courage and decided that I should stand up for my rights irrespective who my ‘aggressors’ were. I made it my mission statement to fight corruption and the corrupt, whoever they were."

A month after the death of Joe Borg’s wife, Victor Balzan instituted a law suit against Mr Borg in order to separate their assets.

"The case was being heard with unusual urgency in front of Judge Herrera. I felt pressurised to accede to Victor Balzan’s requests and sell my interest in the company for a third of the real value worth Lm1 million. I was promised that I was to be paid in cash through a bank loan but the promise never materialised as I was informed that a Mid Med Bank manager wanted Lm35,000 for approval of such a loan," Mr Borg recounts.

At the time Joe Borg compiled an extensive dossier on the land scandals, the blackmail and threats that were common occurrences at the time. "I presented the dossier to Eddie Fenech Adami, who at the time was still Opposition leader. It included information about the corruption committed by Lorry Sant and his clique. I requested Dr Fenech Adami to change the prescription laws."

Joe Borg is bitter about the issue because the prescription laws were never amended even though his dossier used to feature prominently in each and every Nationalist Party mass meeting.

To his knowledge when the issue was raised in cabinet soon after the 1987 election two prominent Nationalist party lawyers, today no longer MPs, were vehemently opposed to changing the prescription laws. Joe Borg strongly believes that politicians are wary of changing the prescription laws out of fear that they would be the first victims of such an amendment.

The corruption story was supposed to have ended in 1987 with the new government appointing the Permanent Commission Against Corruption. Inevitably, Joe Borg was one of the first persons to present cases of corruption against a number of individuals including Lorry Sant and even members of the judiciary.

The sad story has yet to unfold when a number of corruption cases were thrown out of court because they were time-barred by law. The perpetrators just went scot-free. This state of affairs infuriates Joe Borg because the people who stole land and money today continue to enjoy the fruits of their ‘labour’.

"I am dismayed by the Nationalist government’s lack of interest to amend the prescription laws. Prescription just puts handcuffs on police prosecutors," Mr Borg insists.

Mr Borg recalls being asked by the Labour Party Vigilance and Discipline Board to give evidence of corruption by former Labour minister Lorry Sant. "Dr Toni Abela had approached me and asked me whether it was a problem for me to appear in front of the board. This was after 1987 before Lorry Sant was suspended from the party. I agreed and gave evidence in front of Notary Joe Abela who was the board’s chairman."

After spending almost a life time in and out of court battling for his rights and trying to weed out corruption he still cringes at the system. "I sometimes question what justice we have when somebody is sent to prison for stealing a car radio while the people who made millions in Lorry Sant’s time are rubbing shoulders with learned people and being given red carpet treatment," he argues. "Some bankers and politicians called me naive for not going along with the ingrained system of patronage that flourished in the eighties. These comments hurt me," Mr Borg remarks. Nonetheless he is defiant. "I do not regret all that I did in my life and I will continue fighting for my rights no matter the odds."