Xhieda ta’ Matthew Caruana Galizia – 4 ta’ Marzu 2020
l-Atti tal-Inkjesta datata 19 ta' Novembru 2019, rigward skont it- Termini ta’ Referenza ta’ l-Inkjesta Pubblika dwar l-Assassinju ta’ Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Seduta miżmuma llum l-Erbgha 4 ta’ Marzu, 2020.
Matthew Caruana Galizia reproduced on oath solemnly swears:
Witness: So, I’m here to present an e mail and a spreadsheet that come from a leak of e mails and documents from the Electrogas servers. The leak was initially received by my mother at the beginning of two thousand and seventeen (2017), starting around February two thousand and seventeen (2017) and I assisted my mother in the receipt of further e mails and documents from the same leak, which is why I still have access to them. The leak continued until after – until my mother’s murder. So some of the documents and e mails that we have are from two thousand and eighteen (2018) too. And one of the many thousands of e mails is one from a person called Eva Gubala who was at the time a junior analyst at Electrogas and together with Catherine Helpin who was the managing director of Electrogas and a close friend of Yorgen Fenech they’re planning the invite list for the finance closing party of Electrogas which was held in the first or second quarter of two thousand and eighteen (2018).
Imh. A. Lofaro: Closing party you said?
Witness: What they mean is finance closing party as in they close the financing agreement.
Imh. A. Lofaro: Ok.
Witnee: So just before my mother’s murder there were worries that Electrogas was going to default on the repayments of its credit of its loan and in fact it did default on the first payment, but after my mother’s murder the government agreed to extend the guarantee and therefore Electrogas was able to continue purchasing gas from Socar. And the significance of this invite list is that of the few people from the Prim Minister’s office, of the few people from
government in fact, we see Joseph Muscat, Michelle Muscat, Keith Schembri, Charlene Bianco Farrugia, Kenneth Azzopardi and Neville Gafa` – those all listed as guests – as invitees from the Government. Charlene Bianco Farrugia is listed as a guest from the office of the Prime Minister. The documents here are printouts from various sheets contained within the same spreadsheet. The first is the invite list of people who have confirmand. It is a total of a hundred and thirty eight (138) people and then the second is the same list with the e mail addresses and a few more details. The fourth document is the budget from the said spreadsheet which gives an allocated budget of thirty thousand Euros (€30,000) for the closing party which was held at level 22 at Portomaso. I mean I included this because it’s significant, the total cost out of the budget given as twenty eight thousand, six hundred and twenty five Euros (€28,625) for a party for a hundred and thirty eight (138) people. And one of those guests was in fact Charlene Bianco Farrugia.
Imh. A. Lofaro: Was Yorgen Fenech invited?
Witness: Yes, Yorgen Fenech was the organiser. In fact in one of the replies to the analyst at the Electrogas who was organising the guest list, Catharine Helpin says include all Government of Malta on the Portomaso list except anyone who said they are definitely not coming. So it’s unclear whether she means these should be included as people who were coming to the event or whether the government of Malta people should be included as invitees of Portomaso meaning Tumas Group, meaning Yorgen Fenech.
Imh. A. Lofaro: Anyone from the Gasan Group? Witness: Yes there is . . . .
Imh. A. Lofaro: Or Seabank Hotel? Witness: Mark Gasan and Joseph Gasan. Imh. A. Lofaro: What about the DB Group? Witness: I’m not really sure.
Imh. A. Lofaro: Ok.
Witness: I don’t think there is anyone from DB Group, no . . . I’m not entirely sure because the last part of the list is given as EGM 23 plus 3 consultants and I’m not sure who the last couple of people are.
Imh. A. Lofaro: Ok.
Witness: But there is a full list of the Maltese shareholders who were invited and yes Mark Gasan is one of them.
Imh. V. Said Pullicino : When you say closing party actually it is a party that happened, occurred to celebrate this occasion.
Witness: Yes, the closing of the deal.
Imh. V. Said Pullicino : It was actually a party that took place in Portomaso. Witness: Yes it took place at Level 22 which . . . .
Al. Level 22.
Imh. V. Said Pullicino : . . . of the persons invited to that party basically.
Witness: Yes, exactly and Yorgen Fenech was supposed to give a speech at the party celebrating the deal, I suppose, and in fact there is a line in the budget for the cost of the speech.
Imh. A. Lofaro: Cost of the speech? The speech cost?
Witness: They commissioned the speech, they wanted to commission someone to write the speech, so they included a line in the budget.
Imh. A. Lofaro: And then all he does is read it out, right, ok.
Witness: Yes, but then at the request of the Prim Minister’s office, the speech was cancelled.
Imh. A. Lofaro: Ok.
Witness: And Yorgen Fenech did not in fact give a speech at the party, according to the e mails.
Imh. V. Said Pullicino : And what was the date of the party? Witness: Sorry?
Imh. V. Said Pullicino : What was the date of the party? Witness: There is no date given. I’m not sure of the exact date.
Imh. V. Said Pullicino : But it was prior to your mother’s assassination? Witness: No, it was after the assassination.
Imh. V. Said Pullicino : It was after. It was after.
Witness: The significance of this is that it is unlikely that the government would have had extended the guarantee of the loan to Electrogas if the information on 17 Black being owned by Yorgen Fenech had come out before this deal was closed. So, the significance of it is this – that the deal was closed in between my mother’s murder and the information on 17 Black being owned by Yorgen Fenech coming out. Everything happened within that window and including the party itself.
Imh. A. Lofaro: Thank you. Thank you very much. Witness: No more questions?
Imh. A. Lofaro: Not at the moment, thank you very much.