Pardoned oil trader tells court of 'several meetings' held with Austin Gatt

Pardoned businessman George Farrugia has once again testified under oath to having met with former transport minister Austin Gatt on several occasions to discuss issues related to fuel procurement, directly contradicting Gatt's denials that such meetings ever took place.

Farrugia took the witness stand this morning in a libel case instituted by Gatt against MediaToday's managing editor Saviour Balzan over a story it published in 2013, that revealed Farrugia's lobbying of both politicians and Enemalta.

The MaltaToday on Sunday had published excerpts from emails showing that Farrugia had been in regular contact with Enemalta officials and the minister as well as other oil companies, in a bid to ensure the lucrative sale of oil to Enemalta.



Gatt had categorically denied meeting Farrugia to discuss Enemalta's oil procurement when he filed the case. "I categorically and without any reservations, absolutely deny that anything of the sort ever happened or that any conversations I ever had with anyone at all - let alone George Farrugia - ever even remotely touched on the subject."

Magistrate Francesco Depasquale today heard Farrugia say otherwise. “I met with Dr. Gatt a few times. On one occasion he had investors from Dubai who had wanted to make a storage facility in Malta and I had met them.” They had made a presentation about the €300 million investment to Gatt, he said.

“They made a presentation to Austin Gatt...I met him two or three times. They did their studies and research. After the preliminary studies, we had met with the Prime Minister to present the project to him. The time came to perform the Environmental Impact Assessment for the project, which would have cost a lot of money and they had written to the PM to see if the project could go ahead. The response was positive.”

“I recall eating at a restaurant at the waterfront and Austin Gatt had been dining there too. I had asked him about the project...he told me to forget it because the jetties were being objected to by environmentalists.”

“Another time I met him about storage tanks at Has-Saptan,” Farrugia said, explaining that Tarcisio Mifsud had decided to file a claim that Enemalta had lost 600 tonnes of fuel. “We are talking from today to tomorrow. I had spoken to Dr. Gatt more than once on this problem. We then engaged Seybolt to investigate whether these losses were there or not...In a year, not a drop of oil lost. Enemalta was trying to pass it on to Total.”

“On another occasion, I met him [Gatt] at the chairman's request, once during Tancred Tabone's tenure and once during that of Alex Tranter, to bring representatives of Total over and see if it would be interested in assisting in improving Enemalta's two-plane operations at the airport for a defined period of time.” The negotiations had eventually fallen through, the witnessed added.

“Do you recall other emails to Austin Gatt?” Balzan's lawyer Veronique Dalli asked.

“I haven't seen the computer they had been sent to since 2010,” he said, explaining that the PC was still at Powerplan's offices.

Dalli asked about the 2008 electoral campaign. “I was never involved in giving any cars. That department, car hire and chauffeur drive, I had no involvement in.”

Was it possible that as a director, Ray Farrugia could had offered cars to Gatt, the lawyer asked. It was, he said. “It's possible, as everyone would offer.”

The lawyer asked whether he recalled anything else.

“Valentine Hall...there was a time before the elections where they would use it for the electoral campaign.” This was 2008 and it could have happened more than once, Farrugia said.

This is in line with Balzan's testimony, tendered in March 2015, when he had told the court that Gatt had been offered free use of Valentine’s Hall for around two months and a BMW to be used for between four to six weeks during the 2008 electoral campaign.

On that occasion, the MediaToday Managing Editor had told the court that the pardoned oil trader and his brother Ray Farrugia, had ensured that Gatt would have the Hamrun hall at his disposal. George Farrugia’s personal office was on the ground floor of the same Valentine’s Hall.

“Did you ever have meetings in Austin Gatt's offices?” Balzan's lawyer asked.

The witness paused. “I think I once met with what's his name...Claudio Grech,” Farrugia replied.

The witness said he had met with Gatt during a discussion with foreign investors. “Once there were foreigners when the aviation business was being discussed, but nothing had come of the meeting. Once I met with Austin about it and once, I think, with Claudio.”

Asked about the brokerage fee on the €300 million investment, he said there was either an upfront fee of around €1 million or 5% if the project reached fruition.

Fenech said he had won “many” tenders when Austin Gatt was minister, but was unable to recall the exact number. He offered to bring the exact numbers of tenders he was awarded during Alex Tranter's chairmanship for in the next sitting.

The witness was asked whether he had ever donated €2,000 to Austin Gatt's electoral campaign.

“My brother Ray once was involved in an activity at the Excelsior and he gave me an envelope containing around €2,000. I had handed it to one of the helpers at the political activity.”

He denied making any other donations, but conceded that “it’s a possibility” that further donations had been made by companies which he had been a director of.

To objections by opposing counsel Joe Zammit Maempel, the topic of questions turned to Godwin Sant, former Chief Officer Energy Policy at the Malta Resources Authority (MRA).

“I knew him [Sant] before the MRA. I received a phone call from Philip Borg of Enemalta because I had once held an event for petrol station owners and I had got the head of the London fire brigade Jamie Thompson to give a talk. He had asked me if I could talk to Thompson...if he could give a consultancy and I had given him Thompson's number.

“Petrol stations would need the assistance of the MRA and I had sometimes been in meetings with the MRA and lawyers of clients.”

“What is you relationship with Godwin Sant?”
 “I didn't have a special relationship with Sant.”

“And the emails exchanged between you?” 
“The emails about football, I had been abroad to watch a match on the invitation of Trafigura and I had spoken to him about it. He had told me he had a problem because he had booked a flight to watch a match in England but had not been able to get match tickets...I had got him in touch with the people who get the block tickets from Trafigura.”

“On the issue of whether Godwin Sant was a close associate...he was taking payments from a competitor of mine,” Farrugia added.

How many petrol pumps did Farrugia build during Austin Gatt's tenure, Dalli asked. “Maybe one every four years.” Gatt was not involved in the pumps' construction, he said, and neither had he discussed them with him.

Farrugia denied gifting the infamous “arlogg tal-lira” to former PN minister Tonio Fenech.

“I never gave him a gift. Neither did my wife,” the pardoned oil trader said, promising to hand in an account of all gifts he had given in his business dealings during the next sitting.

Dalli read out an email exchange about the option of the minister putting pressure on MOBC director Frank Sammut, in which Oliver De Richmond of oil company Total was mentioned.

“De Richmond was a Totsa trader who was responsible for the supplies...if I'm not mistaken a contract had been made about it, but supply had started and no signed contract had been received. It could be that he was asking for pressure that the contract be delivered, signed.”

He was asked about another email, sent by Farrugia to Duncan Mann, a representative of Total. “Mann was responsible for Total Aviation....I was asked to bring them over to give assistance to Enemalta over the aviation part of the business." 
"It could be a bluff on my part,” he later said. 

Cross-examined by Zammit Maempel, Farrugia denied ever paying commissions to Gatt.

The case continues in April.