Former Security Service chief charged in court

The former head of the Malta Security Services was charged before a magistrate of having caused involuntary serious injury to an elderly pedestrian.

Former MSS head Godfrey Scicluna
Former MSS head Godfrey Scicluna

Former Assistant Commissioner and head of the Malta Security Services, Godfrey Scicluna, appeared this morning before Magistrate Antonio Micallef Trigona, charged with having involuntarily caused serious injury to a 91-year-old pedestrian in June 2012.

Scicluna, who suspended himself after a probe by MaltaToday into the incident that went unreported by police, was immediately investigated by Police Commissioner John Rizzo and charges were brought against him, leaving then Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi no other option but to ask for his immediate suspension.

Scicluna, 61 from Paola, was charged with reckless driving, and involuntarily causing the serious injury of Raffaele Lugermo. The man was hospitalised for months, but died of natural causes last month, soon after MaltaToday broke the news of the incident.

But this morning's arraignment is not Scicluna's only concern at the moment, as he faces yet another serious probe.

While a new head of the Malta Security Service expected to be appointed this week, the agency is now the subject of a police probe that came hot on the heels of revelations by MaltaToday back on 26 January, 2013.

Police are informed that a dossier on tax avoidance by oil trader George Farrugia, who turned State's evidence after he was given a presidential pardon, could have been systematically decimated before being handed over to the finance ministry and finally to the Tax Compliance Unit.

MaltaToday had revealed that it was a member of the Malta Security Services who had informed then prime minister Lawrence Gonzi in the summer of 2011 of the invoices pertaining to George Farrugia's activities, after he was accused by his family of siphoning some €6 million in commissions on oil imports from family business Powerplan.

The MSS member personally came to Gonzi with the information in the summer of 2011 to inform him of Farrugia's activities and his personal company Aikon Ltd, with the related invoices: Gonzi had told the officer to report the allegation to the Commissioner of Police, without taking any further ownership of the matter.

Police are effectively probing contacts made between the former MSS head Godfrey Scicluna and another government ministry, before the dossier was finally handed to the finance ministry.

The resulting dossier, or parts of it, became the subject of a tax investigation by the TCU on Aikon Ltd in August 2011, but was never investigated by the economic crimes unit. Focusing on the under-declaration of taxation, the TCU allegedly failed to connect Aikon Ltd to oil trader George Farrugia, who had formally assumed ownership of the company as of November 2011 after his nominee directors resigned their positions.

When news of the tax inquiry was broken, then finance minister Tonio Fenech denied any knowledge of the case or that it involved Farrugia; he later revealed it was the MSS that passed on the dossier to his head of secretariat Alan Caruana, who passed them on to the TCU without seeing what the documents were and without informing Fenech.

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Is Mr Godfrey Scicluna the same person who was on Enemalta's Oil Procurement Committee some years ago?
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Jista l Kummissarju tal Pulizija jghidilna jekk sarx Breathalyzer test fuq is Sur Scicluna meta sar l accident????
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Peter, powerful office holders tweak regulations and operational power for their benefit. Were it not for MT, this case would have taken far longer to bring to the public's attention. At least, now it is there! I am sure that had GonziPN been re-elected, all would have been neatly swept under that huge, huge carpet. You know the one. That one that would have taken permanent residence at Castille.
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Joseph MELI
Why was he only arraigned in court now given that the incident occurred back in June ,2012 as when was he actually charged with this allegation?