PN will not be returning db Group funds - Busuttil

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil has said that the Nationalist Party (PN) will not be returning the funds given to the party by any of Silvio Debono’s companies because the transactions were ultimately legal.

In an interview with The Sunday Times of Malta, Busuttil said that he was very angry when he said that if the money is dirty, then Silvio Debono can take it back.

“When we discussed the matter internally and reflected on it, we asked ourselves why we should return something that was legal,” said Busuttil. “By giving it back, we would be sending out the message that we may have done something illegal, when this was not the case. We are ready to defend our position in front of the Electoral Commission.”

Last week, the db Group claimed that it had been paying the salaries of two high-ranking officials within the PN with €70,800 having been transferred to the party in 2016 alone.

Busuttil pushed back against these claims and during the same interview, said the money received by Media.Link from the db Group was as part of a “commercial relationship linked to programming on Net TV and Media.Link.”

Asked whether he would be publishing invoices to back up his claims, given that db Group has said that it had not taken out €70,800-worth of advertising, Busuttil argued that it would not be right for the party to publish invoices because “a commercial relationship between two companies is, by its very nature, private.”