Caruana Galizia public inquiry: Joe Gasan started doubting Yorgen Fenech's business acumen when 17 Black connection emerged

Joe Gasan started doubting Yorgen Fenech’s business acumen when the connection with 17 Black was outed, the veteran businessman told the Caruana Galizia public inquiry.

Joe and his son Mark Gasan testified today on their shareholding in the Electrogas consortium that operates a gas power station and LNG terminal in Delimara.

In today’s sitting, lawyer Therese Comodini Cachia flashed out two emails circulated by Electrogas officials in which Keith Schembri was also copied in. Until now, Schembri has always denied any involvement whatsoever in the project.

Both Joe and Mark Gasan expressed surprise at Schembri’s inclusion in the email exchange, claiming to have learnt about it today.

Testifying on Yorgen Fenech, Joe Gasan told the inquiry that he knew him as “a bright boy” and business savvy. “My children were at school with him and they said he was good at business. I had no reason to doubt it,” he testified.

However, he said alarm bells were raised when Fenech’s connection to 17 Black emerged.

The Gasan Group chief lifted the lid on the internal problems caused by revelation that Yorgen Fenech owned 17 Black.

“When it came out that Yorgen Fenech had owned 17 Black, his uncle, Ray Fenech was very upset. Yorgen Fenech wrote an email to all Electrogas directors denying it all. When we met as GEM, he denied it to the extent that he went to England with Ray to speak to a very expensive legal firm to talk about suing,” Joe Gasan said.

When it was pointed out that fellow shareholder Paul Apap Bologna had testified that Yorgen Fenech had not replied when confronted about 17 Black, Gasan said Yorgen had denied it to him in person.

“When he returned from London he stopped attending board meetings and was unavailable for a long time… We insisted that he should make a public statement. I remember him saying that he was not too sure if it was worth pursuing the legal action,” Joe Gasan said.

Fenech’s lengthy disappearance from board meetings had also caused a problem of quorum and a proposal was put forward to increase the directors.

Joe Gasan said he did not know whether as is being alleged, the Electrogas deal had anything to do with Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder but if there was a connection, he did not want to be a part of it.

“We don't want a part of it so we are looking to exit the consortium and have been doing so for some time. We will not profit from this deal,” he told the board.

Mark Gasan testifies about service fee to Yorgen Fenech

Earlier, Mark Gasan confirmed that Yorgen Fenech, through his company New Energy Supply had to receive a service fee for carrying out the tasks assigned to GEM by the Electrogas consortium.

Mark Gasan admitted that the government was not aware that shareholders were going to be paid a success fee once bank finance was secured.

He said an email he sent to fellow shareholders and company officials asking whether they should speak directly to the minister on the excise tax issue, was based on what the company’s chief operating officer was saying that the tax should not be paid by Electrogas.

Mark Gasan said he was not aware Konrad Mizzi and the OPM’s intrusiveness in Electrogas matters when dealing with journalists’ questions.

He was asked by Comodini Cachia about questions sent by British newspaper The Guardian in April 2018 but he could not recall the incident.

Asked whether he was aware that government was instructing Electrogas on how to address journalists, he replied that he wasn't copied in the email.

His reply prompted Judge Abigail Lofaro to interject: “Didn’t you take an interest in these things? You invested all these millions… How could you not remember questions from The Guardian?”

Mark Gasan reiterated that he could not recall the email in question, which again prompted an incredulous Lofaro to remark that he should remember.

“You're not in your dotage, you're young. You should remember,” the judge said.

However, he expressed surprise when Comodini Cachia said that Konrad Mizzi’s staffers were advising Electrogas on whether or not to give interviews and how to respond to the media.

In the previous sitting on Monday, Electrogas shareholder Paul Apap Bologna continued his testimony.

The public inquiry into the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia is tasked with, amongst other things, determining whether the State did all it could to prevent the murder from happening.

Caruana Galizia was murdered in a car bomb just outside her Bidnija home on 16 October 2017.

Three men, George Degiorgio, Alfred Degiorgio and Vince Muscat, have been charged with carrying out the assassination, while Yorgen Fenech is charged with masterminding the murder.

Melvin Theuma, who acted as a middleman between Fenech and the three killers, was granted a presidential pardon last year to tell all.

The inquiry is led by retired judge Michael Mallia and includes former chief justice Joseph Said Pullicino and Judge Abigail Lofaro.