Tuna bribery claims: Suspended fisheries director says requests for payments were 'legitimate'

Andreina Fenech Farrugia has denied soliciting bribes from tuna farm operators insisting she legitimately asked for payments when companies requested higher fish quotas.

The suspended fisheries director said it was “perfectly obvious” that official payments for higher quotas according to the law were addressed to her in her capacity as director.

Fenech Farrugia reached out to MaltaToday to rebut claims that she requested bribes from Spanish tuna impresario Jose Fuentes.

The claims emerged this week after excerpts of tapped phone conversations between Fenech Farrugia and Fuentes were leaked to the Spanish media.

The phone taps were carried out by Spain’s Civil Guard as part of a wider investigation into the black-market trade of Bluefin tuna by the Fuentes group. Fuentes have subsidiary companies in Malta trading under the name Mare Blu.

Fenech Farrugia was suspended indefinitely by Environment Minister Jose Herrera on Tuesday morning when the news reports emerged.

She insisted that a request by Fuentes to increase his company’s tuna quota – a fact that emerged from the phone taps – was dealt with according to law.

“Everything was done above board… with the necessary authorisations obtained from the competent organs and against payments of hundreds of thousands of euros made to me as director, according to law and ministerial decisions,” Fenech Farrugia said.

In a lengthy letter to this newspaper, Fenech Farrugia categorically denied any wrongdoing, cast doubt on the phone transcripts and insisted she always acted in an ethical and just way.

Read Fenech Farrugia's letter below:

She also revealed that she had been questioned over the past few months by a Maltese magistrate leading an inquiry into alleged wrongdoing by the Spanish tuna farm operator.

“For months, I have never found any difficulty cooperating with the authorities, providing all the requested information, including to the pending magisterial inquiry,” Fenech Farrugia said.

She insisted that she would continue to cooperate with the investigation because it was in her interest to clear her name and ensure the truth emerged.

“I declare that I have always carried out my duty in a professional and ethical way and according to the law, and I was always impartial and just with all operators and persons involved in the sector,” Fenech Farrugia said.

The suspended fisheries director says she regularly spoke with all tuna farm operators as part of her job

'I was accessible to all operators'

She did not deny holding conversations with Fuentes but said it was normal for her to be in constant contact with all operators.

“I was accessible to all of them in the same way as was my duty,” she said.

But Fenech Farrugia cast doubt on the leaked transcripts, pointing out that these were “summaries of alleged phone calls”.

“I not only cannot confirm that I held those conversations but, worse than this, they are not word for word transcripts of the alleged phone calls but shortened versions that could have been misinterpreted or taken out of context,” Fenech Farrugia insisted.

She added that the Spanish language used in the summaries was “poor” and could have contributed to the misinterpretation of the phone calls.

Taking it one step further, Fenech Farrugia questioned why she was singled out from an investigation that included tens of operators, individuals, companies and entities, including Maltese ones.

“It is curious and strange… I just hope this was not a move intended to stop me from continuing my job in the best interest of the observance of the rule of law in this sector,” she said.

Fenech Farrugia pointed out that on a number of occasions over the years she had ordered action to be taken against Fuentes for regulatory breaches.

Failure to explain Spanish mobile number

In her reply, Fenech Farrugia failed to explain how she had been using a Spanish mobile phone number that was traced back to Ricardo Fuentes e Hijos, the company owned by Fuentes.

This was the one thing that raised the suspicion of Spanish investigators, who claimed that Fenech Farrugia used the number to communicate directly with Fuentes on his “secure phone”.

Investigators came across Fenech Farrugia’s name after they discovered that Fuentes had a second mobile phone, which he used as a secure line and from which he made regular calls to a woman called “Andreina”.

The conversation between Fuentes and Fenech Farrugia allegedly took place on various days in June last year.

In October, Spanish authorities made several arrests after they lifted the lid on Operation Tarantella.

The Maltese police have since Tuesday’s revelations asked Europol for more information on Fenech Farrugia’s link to the Fuentes investigation.