Saviour Balzan: email source totally unconnected to political parties

Transport Minister persists in speculative conjecture on MaltaToday email in which George Farrugia mentions a meeting with Austin Gatt to oil firm.

Austin Gatt has denied ever discussing oil tenders with Trafigura representative George Farrugia, and has alleged that emails showing he met Farrugia may have been manipulated.
Austin Gatt has denied ever discussing oil tenders with Trafigura representative George Farrugia, and has alleged that emails showing he met Farrugia may have been manipulated.

MaltaToday's managing editor Saviour Balzan faced Transport Minister Austin Gatt during a press conference at the Nationalist Party headquarters, in which he categorically dispelled claims that the sources of emails showing that an oil trader held meetings with the then energy minister in 2004, were connected to a political party.

"The source of the emails is not connected in any way to any political party," Saviour Balzan told Gatt after the minister hosted a press conference to "share his conjecture" about the source of emails in which Farrugia, the local agent for Trafigura and Total, talks about his meetings with Gatt during his time as minister responsible for Enemalta.

"Our two sources are people who are third parties who are not even remotely connected or linked with any political party."

"Nevertheless, I was careful so as not to divulge any information from the hundreds of emails that the hard-disks contained," Balzan added.

Balzan also explained that the original emails, which implicate Gatt in a series of meetings with George Farrugia, were printed directly off a hard-disk which MaltaToday obtained through its sources.

In his own address, Gatt emphasised that at no point did he attempt to apply pressure on MaltaToday to divulge its sources. "I did not refer to your sources. I did not ask who it is. I would not dare ask you because it would be compete unethical for me, or even the police, to ask.

However, Gatt said that he would be "naïve not to say that these sources might be messengers" and insisted that "if I wanted to hide my hand, I would send someone else along."

"If I want to manipulate an email and lace it on a hard disk, I can do that easily," Gatt said, insisting that doubts remain on the Facebook photo of the email.

A criminal investigation is currently ongoing into kickbacks paid by Trafigura to a former Enemalta consultant in 2004, after MaltaToday broke the story and published invoices paid to Frank Sammut by Trafigura, for a US$ 4 million consignment to Enemalta.

In later emails published first by the Sunday Times and then by MaltaToday, Farrugia was shown to have held meetings with Gatt, leading the minister to categorically deny that he had ever discussed any oil tenders with Farrugia.

READ MORE Replicated emails Gatt will report to Police

Farrugia will turn State's witness to give evidence in the oil procurement scandal.

But on Thursday, Gatt held a press conference at his ministry claiming that one of the Farrugia emails appearing in The Times, showed that a frame-up was underway: as it turned out the email published in The Times had been replicated, using incorrect formatting and also spell-checked, from a photo of the original email appearing in MaltaToday.com.mt on Wednesday, that had been posted to a Facebook profile.

Today Gatt said that it was Labour MP Evarist Bartolo who posted the photo onto Facebook.

He also claimed that the 2004 email published by MaltaToday, in which George Farrugia has an email exchange with a Total representative in which he mentions his meeting with Austin Gatt, has its date carried in the Maltese language [19 ta' Gunju 2004].

Claiming that he was a victim of a frame-up, Gatt said that the Maltese language set for computers was only created in 2006, and not before.

"Who changed the date? Why was the date changed?" Gatt said as he insinuated that the email could have been written by somebody who normally writes in Maltese. He added the emails "could well have been taken out from Farrugia's computer by his feuding brothers," and the negations mentioned in the email could be making reference to the 2008 privatisation process in which the Farrugia brothers were bidders.

48 hours after publicly declaring that he believed MaltaToday's email to be an original email, today Gatt shed renewed doubts on the MaltaToday email. "My supposition, and it's a supposition, is that MaltaToday could have been manipulated," Gatt claimed.

Gatt also hinted that Labour candidates David Farrugia Sacco and Manuel Mallia were connected to the origin of the mails, a notion dispelled by Saviour Balzan's appearance at the press conference. Farrugia Sacco was the lawyer for Farrugia's brothers in a judicial protest they filed against George Farrugia over the alleged siphoning-off of oil profits from Powerplan Ltd; while Mallia was part of an investigative audit into the emails that the John's Group Of Companies (Farrugia's family business before he fell out with his brothers) produced in court.

Gatt went as far as to shed doubt on the presidential pardon granted to Farrugia by the Cabinet of ministers saying: "The more time goes by, the more I am convinced that this is a frame-up. I am getting an Impression that the pardon is annoying Labour," adding that the pardon was the most effective tool in the police investigations."

He also denied having any properties abroad and said that he felt no need to declare his Swiss bank account because no money was deposited into the account.

At about four minutes into the press conference, Gatt also expressed doubts particularly regarding the date in Maltese of the email published by Maltatoday. He alluded to the fact that Microsoft had not yet introduced Maltese date formats in 2004, when the email is dated.

Maltatoday managing editor Saviour Balzan dismissed Gatt's doubts by affirming that "an eventual upgrade of an operating system (e.g. from Windows XP to Windows 7) in a computer, or transferring email data from an old system to a new one with the new date formats regime of 2006 would hence enable emails created with the older date format to inherit the newer system."

"Thus emails created in 2004 with an old operating system with no Maltese regional and language settings would inherit the new settings upon being transferred to a newer computer with an updated operating system proprietary of Maltese settings after 2006, provided data has been transferred in an appropriate manner."

"With regards the 'dot' on G of Ġimgħa is clearly visible," Balzan said.

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Dear Saviour Balzan, Could you please verify and check the following: A friend has told me this evening that Dr Austin Gatt's account at UBS in Switzerland has Euro 3,000,000. Could the Commissioner of Police please confirm whether this is true? If true, could Dr Gatt please explain to the public how he forgot to report a Euro 3,000,000 account in his assets declaired each year in parliament? If this fact is true, could the Commissioner of Inland Revenue and Tax Compliance Unit please calculate total tax due since the opening of this account in 1973 and whether this total tax due has been fully paid up? In the USA, the IRS would investigate this to the last cent. Thank you for all your excellent journalist work. You have the full support of all the honest and hard working people in Malta for all your truly beneficial jounalist work. Grazzi tassew. Joe.
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what a grand entrance mr saviour balzan!!!!cousin bondi and friend norman did not raise their eyes from the floor.what a knockout!!!
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Luke Camilleri
Never saw AUST wanting to pee so much as when he saw Savior Balzan march into the room! He KNEW THAN he was in deep S!
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Eddie Fenech Adami kien qal - Min ma jikxifx il-KORRUZZJONI huwa KORROT. Allura kemm hemm nies fil-Parlament li huma ONESTI? Hawn xi hadd jaf? Kien hawn min ma kellux jiekol, dahal fil-politika u sar miljunarju u mhux huwa biss imma uliedu u ulied uliedu, u il-povru haddiem jilaq it-trab, il-penzjonanti jibqu nieqsin minn hafna affarijiet, il-haddiem iz-zghir jibqa b' xoghol prekarju u ihallas it-taxxa sa l-0anqas centezmu u l-allat foloz ta dan il-pajjiz jistanew. Iz-zghir jintbadt il-habs ghallinqas centezmu u l-allat folor jisirqu il-biljuni u qisu qatt ma gara xejn anzi jippretendu li isiru qaddisin u ahna nadurawhom. Prosit lil Malta today l-ahjar gazzetta li hawn bhalissa fil-pajjiz. Kompli ikxfulhom il-warrani.
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Mud slinging Muscat throws the stone and runs away, yet ignoring the fact that people in his own party are not so high and mighty and where is Saviour on this. Saviour yet another turnaround. Failed politician and in my opinion failed journalist. I believe you will have a lot to answer to at the end of all this......
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It would be better fog A.G. to keep his mouth shut as he is giving the impression he is drowning in shit and trying to pull himself out. On the other hand the PN seems to be trying to grasp victory from the mouth of defeat by repeating its 2008 JPO frame up. PN to be credible you need to be positive. People will not be taken in by your "Terinati".
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I think Gatt is not right when he says that the date 19ta'Gunju is written with the maltese alphabet. if you take notice the capital G don't have a dot on it so you can write the whole date without using the maltese version.
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Austin never did a thing without a good comission. why havent the police checked the bank accounts and trusts that fall under the names of all his family is there something I cannot understand, is the prime minister controlling the police in there investigations? Austin has managed to dodge everyone in their investigations, this man cannot be trusted again, how much money does this person has to keep on taking before the police realy have enough evidence to arrest him?
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What an unprofessional Minister. The Oil Scandal is the tip of the iceberg.
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Giddieb iehor daqsu ghad irid jinholoq.....jekk ma kissirx il-forma!:-(
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Frame-up my foot! The story is still unfolding and we have much more fun to have in the near future on this matter. It is only a matter of dragging down the arrogant to lick the dust now.
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Imma dan il bniedem x jahseb li hu u kuginuh biss jafu juzaw computer. Jahseb li ahna imbecilli. Ma jafx dan is suppost guru tat teknologija li kull email anke ta 15 il sena ilu li jekk tipprintja f computer li ghandu issettjat il lingwa Maltija d data se tigi ipprintjat bil format Malti. Imma possibli se jibqa arroganti sa l ahhar
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Hallini sur Ministru mill-Frame -ups. Kemm qed tahseb li il-poplu qed jemmnek f'dawn iz-zminijiet. Tal-biki f-liema stat wasal il-PN !!
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Jimmy is right. So if this is all fake why give a presidential pardon? The case was brought to light thanks to these "fake" emails. And how come Austin Gatt was commending MaltaToday only a couple of days ago and is now accusing it? Some consistency would lend some credibility to the whole affair!
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This is the same Minister that rubbished tha auditor general in his investigations of the BWSC scandal and even suggested to open investigations against the same auditor general! Well perhaps the emails were found in the YELLOW PAGES!
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PN is missing the point completely. If Gatt recieved any kickbacks is nkt the question. The fact that ministers and the govt was so incompetent with public funds is more worrying.
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As Dr Gatt states, email dates are automatically generated by the computer. This means that they are generated in the language pack presently active on the computer used. An English language pack could have been active on the computer originally used in 2004. If a Chinese language pack is active on the computer used to reprint the same email in 2013 the date will be generated in Chinese.
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Sur Ministru jekk l-emails huma fabrikazzjoni ghalfejn tajtu l-amnestija?
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OUR DEAR MINISTER BLAMES EVERYONE AND ANYONE TO SHED THE HEAVY CLOUD THAT HAS DESCENDED ON HIM. WITH HIS ARROGANCE, HIS OLIGARCHIC ATTITUDES AS FRANCO DEBONO DESCRIBES THEM, AND HIS DISDAIN AGAINST ANYONE WHO DARES TO CONFRONT HIM IT IS NOW TIME FOR THE MALTESE PEOPLE TO KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT THE ABSOLUTE WEB OF CORRUPTION DEALING IN BILLIONS OF EUROS THAT HAS NOW SURFACED. AND THE PEOPLE WANT JUSTICE. GONZI DECLARATION THAT HE SUPPORTS HIS MINISTER IS VERY SINISTER AND SMELLS ROTTEN.
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Luke Camilleri
Ghidilna aktar Saviour :O ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ghandhek laterial ghal ktieb iehor hawn ! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mhux ta' b'xejn ma jmmorhux fuq il-program tieghe REPORTER ujmorru biss fuq programmi tal-PBS, ir-REGIM ta' Peppi fejn jilghabu HOME B'PEPPI IL-KOWC, PEPPI L-EMMISSARJU ta' GoniPN!