‘No proof of abuse’ says inquiry in allegations of fuel smuggling ring

An inquiry by top civil servants has found no evidence of connivance between foreign ministry officials in a fuel smuggling ring led by former Malta footballer Darren Debono.

The inquiry was launched by the foreign ministry after reports appearing in the Italian press quoted excerpts from the Operation ‘Dirty Oil’ dossier by Italian investigators.

The inquiry led by three permanent secretaries into allegations by financial newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, said the official whose initials were published in the newspaper “carried out her duties as required by the system adopted by the ministry, which are based on international rules and processes.”

Only the conclusions of the inquiry were published by the foreign ministry, in a reply to a PQ by Nationalist MP Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici.

READ MORE Debono used false certificates and Maltese notary’s signature to gain ministry stamp

While Il Sole 24 Ore had suggested a civil servant abetted Debono’s fuel smuggling ring, the 284-page ‘Dirty Oil’ dossier actually said Debono was using falsified certificates of origin for smuggled Libyan oil to obtain a foreign ministry apostille – a certification of the documents – so that his ships could offload their fuel in Italian ports.

“It does not emerge from this inquiry that a ministry official had any contact with Debono as indicated in the report. There was no proof of any female official ‘aged 55’ employed with the ministry or involved in any process of legalisation of documents…

“There was no interference from people inside the consular services directorate or the ministry in the legalisation of documents. Indeed the process itself is nothing more than the authentication of a person’s signature on the documents presented.”

The inquiry said the system employed audit trails but that new upgrades were required to the process, and that a new working group should revise the procedure adopted so that it is in line with international rules. “There must be no place for abuse and the process must safeguard the reputation of the ministry.”

Debono’s fuel smuggling ring was dealt an important blow in 2016 when the United Nations publicised the trafficking of fuel out of Libya by smuggling kingpin Fahmi Ben Khalifa – Debono’s business partner.

The operation included another Maltese national, Gordon Debono, who used his Maltese company Petroplus to issue false certificates of origin to conceal the Libyan fuel as hailing from Saudi Arabia.

Both Darren and Gordon Debono are under arrest in Sicily following the crackdown on the €30 million smuggling operation.

Debono had required certification from the Maltese Chamber of Commerce to validate these documents, a condition for the oil to be offloaded inside an Italian port. For two years before the UN report, the ‘Saudi’ trans-shipments were being unknowingly certified by the Chamber’s services. When the alarm bell rang at the Chamber, Debono tried obtaining a foreign ministry apostille.

Debono finds brick wall

In May 2016, Debono started encountering difficulties obtaining the necessary certification from the Chamber of Commerce, ostensibly suspecting that Petroplus’s ‘Saudi’ certificates were false.

In a telephone call Debono made to Italian oil trader Marco Porta, intercepted by the Italian and Maltese secret services, investigators say “there was clear anxiety about offloading the Libyan oil… as soon as possible at the port of Augusta (Sicily)… throughout May, there were numerous telephone calls attesting to the difficulty of obtaining certificates of origin for their product.” On the 3 June 2016, Debono informed Porta of the “unequivocal refusal” by the Chamber of Commerce to certify documents issued by Oceano Blu Trading, a company run by Gordon Debono and used as a financial vehicle for the funnelling of profits offshore.

At this point, a telephone interception sheds light on Debono’s problems at providing Porta with the verified documents necessary to offload the oil shipments in port

Debono: “Dottor Porta, good evening… I’m still blocked here.”

Porta: “Why?”

D: “No, nothing, nothing special, aehm, because you know everything I sent you, I’ve spoken to everybody here in Malta… aehm… and this lady is expecting some email to take a decision and we’re tired of this excuse, for this son of a bitch… because the minister, because she’s been signing everything for 30 years and she wants to be sure one hundred percent, and here I am at the foreign ministry, just imagine, to have this email sent to her.”

P: “Eh. Well it’s urgent, and…”

D: “Ehhh I know, it’s too urgent and I can imagine the pressure for the Tiuboda [cargo ship], the crew, on you, on me…”

P: “Ok…”

D: “I have no alternative… it so happens this woman of 55 years who has been working here for 30 years is saying: ‘aaaah, I command here, I do this because only I can sign’… and that ‘not even the minister tells me what to sign’...”