Car businesses change directors in bid to avoid blacklisting

Companies belonging to members of the so-called abduction gang have changed directors in a bid to avert a fallout from their blacklisting on lucrative public contracts.

Christian Borg, the main shareholder of the Princess group of companies, accused of direct involvement in the abduction and assault of a man, conceded the directorship of his company Princess Operations to Joseph Camenzuli, a one-time photographer for the Labour Party and prime minister Joseph Muscat.

Companies belonging to members of the so-called abduction gang that are now facing charges in court, have changed directors in a bid to avert a fallout from their blacklisting on lucrative public contracts.

Christian Borg, the main shareholder and director of the Princess group of companies, accused of direct involvement in the abduction and assault of a man, conceded the directorship of his company Princess Operations to Joseph Camenzuli, a one-time photographer for the Labour Party and prime minister Joseph Muscat.

Christian Borg (Photo: Instagram)

Six men, Christian Borg, Tyson Grech, Luke John Milton, Thorne Mangion, Burton Azzopardi and Jeremy Borg were arrested in January and charged with the abduction and assauly of the man, threatening to have his fingers cut off and his sister rape.

All six are currently on bail.

Borg owns several companies including No Deposit Cars Malta Ltd, Zing Cabs Ltd, Zing Rental Ltd, Princess Holdings Ltd, Princess Operations Ltd and Princess Construction Ltd. In the past he was behind the car hire franchises Green Motion and Gold Car Malta.

Through Princess Holdings he is now operating the Sicily By Car franchise.

Borg also owns two car-hire showrooms, No Deposit Cars Malta in Qormi, and Easy Finance Motor House in Burmarrad.

And at 28, Borg can be said to be extremely wealthy, owning several luxury cars and a number of exotic animals, including lions, a puma, a panther and a crocodile, apart from running a business which in five years amassed €22 million in accumulated losses and backed entirely by shareholder loans.

A considerable number customers of No Deposit Cars and Easy Finance Motor House approached MaltaToday over the past, saying they had had their bank accounts frozen by garnishee orders after stopping repayments for what they claim are damaged cars.

The No Deposit Cars Malta showroom in Qormi (Photo: James Bianchi/MaltaToday)

Additionally, Borg’s links to the Labour Party have gained more prominence: before becoming prime minister, Robert Abela served as one of the Borg’s legal advisors, even appearing on a property assignment of rights in a deal that has been criticised by the Opposition. Abela denied any wrong doing and said he had declared his income from the deal.

Borg was not only close to the current Prime Minister but also to other Labour Party figures, most prominently Joseph Camenzuli, the Labour Party photographer who shares a passion for exotic animals with Borg.

But the closeness of the two was evident in court, when Camenzuli offered to act as a third-party guarantee for Borg in case of bail, saying he knew him for five years and could vouch for him.

Christian Borg (right) with his business partner and former PL photographer Joseph Camenzuli (Photo: Instagram)

Camenzuli has now taken over the directorship of No Deposit Cars Limited and Princess Operations from Borg, ever since the Rabat abduction story broke out.

A series of tenders won by Borg’s companies

Sources have told MaltaToday that Borg’s companies have held or are holding a number of contracts with public entities, having won a number of tenders to lease cars to Police, Transport Malta and LESA.

Princess Holdings Limited won a €12,000 direct order in 2018, for the provision of self-drive cars to the Ministry for Transport. In 2020, the same company also won four direct orders from the Rabat local council for the leasing of a Peugeot vehicle, amounting to around €1,000 in total.

Princess Operations won a tender issued in July 2020 for the lease of 38 low emission motor vehicles, a crew-cargo van and two self-drive vans with Transport Malta. The offer of Princess Operations had been the cheapest, but the runner-up tenderer still went to court, claiming irregularities in the bidding process. In the appeal, Davico Limited raised doubts on whether Princess Operations could really take into account all the real costs of full insurance cover as requested in the tender and claimed it did not possess the required number of vehicles. The appeal was rejected by a court in January.

On Friday, Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi claimed Transport Malta had returned the leased cars to Borg’s company.

MaltaToday sent questions to Transport Malta to confirm the veracity of these claims, but did not receive a confirmation of whether the cars were returned.

“DOC Tender CT2199/2020 was evaluated as per Public Procurement regulations and procedures. The tender was challenged in front of the Public Contracts Review Tribunal, as well as at the Apeals Court, and both cases were judges in favour of the Authority for Transport. The Authority will follow the established procedures,” TM said.

The tender on the government website however still shows that this tender was at an evaluation stage, so it should not have been the case that the cars were already leased.

As part of the tendering process, any bidding company has to declare that no person of the administrative body was ever subject to a criminal conviction.

Borg was, at the time of the bid, director of the company with Milton registered as company secretary.

According to the court documents, the runner-up was informed by a letter on 18 June 2021 that Princess Operations had won the bid.

Yet in June 2021, Milton was charged with fraudulently obtaining $700,000 from a car dealer and storing them in a crypto wallet. Milton proceeded to resign his role as company secretary on 6 July 2021, although the Malta Business Registry document backdates the effective resignation to 16 June 2021.

Borg, on the other hand, had minor convictions. In 2015 he was found guilty of breaking car hire laws, when changing the car registration plates from one car to the other and using unauthorised number plates. In 2021, he was found guilty of perjury, when offering false testimony in court.

It remains to be seen whether in light of Milton’s and Borg’s criminal records, Princess Operations’ bid should have been declared invalid.

Joseph Camenzuli has in recent days become the director of the company, although Borg remains the sole shareholder, through his other company Princess Holdings Limited.

Princess Operations had also won a tender, SPD2/2021/042, to lease 24 cars to the Local Enforcement System Agency (LESA). The tender had been issued on 22 September 2021 and awarded on 18 January 2022, a week before Borg was arraigned on the Rabat abduction incident.

The LESA vehicles, Princess Operations won the tender for

MaltaToday sent questions to LESA to confirm whether the tender is in the process of being revoked.

“The said tender was issued as per normal procedure and in line with the applicable legislation. The process has been fully completed, including any period of appeal being exhausted. The said tender was evaluated in line with the Procurement regulations, and with the necessary vetting and approvals as stipulated by the Department of Contracts. LESA shall comply to any orders issued by the department of contracts or the courts,” LESA said.

Attempts to reach Joe Camenzuli on his cell phone and home address proved futile.