Farrugia brothers knew of Enemalta oil kickbacks, inspector tells court

A court has been told that four of the five brothers of pardoned oil trader George Farrugia had been aware of his bribery of Enemalta officials.

The Farrugia brothers appeared before magistrate Miriam Hayman this morning to face charges relating to the oil trading scandal.

Antonio Farrugia, 68, Gaetano Farrugia, 65, Raymond Farrugia, 62, Emmanuel Farrugia, 59, and Salvatore Farrugia ,60, pleaded not guilty to charges relating having had knowledge of bribery of state officials.

Police inspector Angelo Gafa’ told the magistrate that apart from Emmanuel Farrugia, the other four brothers had admitted to having known that George Farrugia was bribing state officials in order to secure oil contracts from Enemalta.

Gafa said that they told him that this had been revealed to them in a meeting during negotiations with MOBC. “They had approved the payment of these commissions. This meant they were not only aware but participants in the granting of commissions”.

The police inspector told the court that he had begun investigating the case after MaltaToday broke the story in 2013.

“Farrugia had insisted that his brothers were aware and approved of all this. He was using Powerplan Ltd’s money for this purpose. He had explained that Tarcisio Mifsud had given him the impression that if he did not pay these commissions, he would never win a tender again. However, even after these commissions were paid, he did not always win the tenders.”

George Farrugia is expected to testify when the case continues tomorrow.

Lawyer David Farrugia Sacco appeared for the Farrugias. Police Inspector Jonathan Ferris is prosecuting.