Passport sellers had ‘improper advantage’ with minister’s promo

Updated at 1:50pm with reaction from Chetcuti Cauchi

The minister formerly responsible for Malta’s sale of citizenship could have given an improper advantage to passport sellers Chetcuti Cauchi Advocates when the former parliamentary secretary appeared in promotional videos for the firm, the Standards Commissioner has found.

The Commissioner for Standards in Public Life George Hyzler said in a report published on Wednesday that ministers “should not given improper advantages to private operators.”

Hyzler issued the statements after considering a complaint by the NGO Repubblika against Farrugia Portelli – who is now Tourism Minister – for having appeared in promotional videos produced by Chetcuti Cauchi and shot inside Castille.

The video was produced to promote the citizenship by investment and residential visa schemes, the Commissioner said, and had appeared in three videos together with officials from the government agencies that administer the schemes and representatives of the law firm itself.

The Commissioner concluded that this may have given an improper advantage to the firm because the videos gave the impression that it was well connected with the authorities. 

“There is a fine line between promoting a government scheme and giving preferential treatment to a particular agent. In my opinion, this line has been crossed in the case under consideration,” Hyzler said.

However, the Commissioner also found that Farrugia Portelli had not been directly involved in the production of the videos, other than through her own appearance. 

This case was the result not of bad faith but of lack of thought on her part, as well as a failure to act promptly to have the videos removed once she became aware of the effects of her actions, Hyzler said.

After the Commissioner held meetings with Farrugia Portelli and Chetcuti Cauchi Advocates founding partner Jean Philippe Chetcuti, the former parliamentary secretary instructed the firm to remove the videos from its web pages. 

The Commissioner said it felt that this action, together with his own report, “were a sufficient remedy in the circumstances.”

Jean Philippe Chetcuti had last year been filmed in an undercover sting on a French TV programme boasting of his political connections to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and the parliamentary secretary for citizenship, Julia Farrugia Portelli.

Following an investigation of all citizenship applications submitted by his law firm, however, the regulator of the Individual Investor Programme (IIP) found no red flags.

IIP regulator Carmel De Gabriele, determined that “an analysis of these observations has not uncovered any red flags which support, in all or in part, the purported allegations” in Chetcuti’s regards.

In a reaction, Farrugia Portelli took note of the conclusions of the report, and said that in his report the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life makes clear that her conduct was not done in any way with any wrongful intent. “Furthermore, the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life concluded that the fact that the videos were lifted is in itself a remedy in this case.”

Chetcuti Cauchi reaction to Commissioner's report

Reacting to the Standard Commissioner's report, Chetcuti Cauchi highlighted that, as licensed citizenship agent, it was not only entitled to but obliged to promote the IIP and to seek the MIIP Agency’s prior consent before publishing any IIP-related promotion. 

"The video in question was a result of research conducted by the firm comparing the due diligence standards of the IIP with that of other programmes represented by the firm. Apart from the logos of the firm on the video, the firm’s representative made objective statements of fact about the sectoral investment Malta was attracting, and made no direct reference to the services of the firm,"the firm said. 

"Furthermore, with hindsight, the firm agrees with the recommendations made on the choice of filming location and explains that the choice was made intentionally to avoid the impression of preference that would have arisen had the firm filmed at its own offices as the firm does for all legal update videos it releases," Chetcuti Cauci added.

Moreover, Jean Philippe Chetcuti also referred to publication in January this year of the raw footage from the French TV sting. He said this footage showed he was "not 'boasting' but responsing to three insidious questions from the undercover journalists, who persisted in asking 'How do you know the minister?'"