- James Piscopo, former Lands Authority CEO, received thousands from Fortina CEO Edward Zammit Tabona’s company in 2019.
- That same year, Parliament approved a cut-price deal allowing Fortina to redevelop its Sliema hotel site into apartments and offices.
- The government valued the land at €8.1 million, but independent estimates placed it at €18–23.8 million, a discrepancy of nearly €13 million to Fortina’s benefit.
- Piscopo had business ties with Zammit Tabona, co-owning a company together until 2018.
- Months after resigning over corruption allegations, Piscopo received an €11,800 a month consultancy contract for Ozo Group, which is part-owned by Zammit Tabona.
- NAO report found Lands Authority officials withheld higher valuations, and that Fortina received inside information about the deal.
An intelligence report details how former Lands Authority CEO James Piscopo received payments from a company owned by Fortina’s CEO in the very year Parliament approved a cut-price deal for the group to redevelop its Sliema hotel site into lucrative apartments and offices.
Piscopo and Zammit Tabona confirmed the payments. However, both said the payments were private and legitimate and had no connection to the waiver.
In 2019, Parliament approved Fortina Group’s request to convert its Sliema site for €8.1 million. It was first purchased from the government in three deals from 1991 to 2000 for a total value of around €1.4 million.
The land was sold for the sole purpose of extending its hotel on the site, into apartments, offices, and commercial spaces. The request was first submitted in April 2017 by Charles Mangion, a Notary Public, who was a government MP at the time and now chairperson of the Malta Tourism Authority, who acted as Fortina’s notary.
Mangion told Amphora Media that “ at no point did such engagements give rise to any conflict of interest” and that “the Auditor General never deemed it necessary to summon [him] or to request any clarification regarding the professional submission”.
The government settled for €8.1 million, taking into account only one out of the four sites. But an independent valuation, which the Lands Authority suppressed, placed the land’s worth between €18.3 million and €23.9 million, depending on the payment terms.
The National Audit Office estimates the site at €21 million, compared to the Lands Authority’s €8.1 million, a discrepancy of nearly €13 million to Fortina’s benefit.
As part of the deal, Fortina paid €1 million upfront and would pay an additional €7.1 million within ten years. By the end of 2024, Fortina had paid approximately €2.9 million, leaving a balance of around €5.1 million, which is to be settled in full by July 2029.
An investigation by Amphora Media and Times of Malta has uncovered a series of transactions between James Piscopo and companies co-owned by Edward Zammit Tabona from 2017 to 2022, including details of the company they owned together while the former was heading Transport Malta and later the Lands Authority.
Piscopo confirmed the payments in reply to questions sent by Amphora Media. However, he stressed that they concerned his “private affairs, private individuals, private companies, and events that are entirely unrelated to the Fortina waiver process”.
Piscopo stated that the payments were related to a €46,541 investment in 2017 and a subsequent divestment in 2019, which he made with Edward Zammit Tabona, co-owner of BBF Ltd. He added that he had declared the conflict of interest in September 2018. Piscopo said this came at “the earliest opportunity”. However, the NAO report confirms this came after media questions were sent regarding his involvement.
“My role in the group is exclusively that of CEO of Fortina Investments Limited. I maintain separate business interests independent of the Fortina Group,” Zammit Tabona said via his spokesperson.
“Piscopo was briefly a partner/shareholder in BBF following its formation in 2017. In 2018 he sold his share within the company and was subsequently paid for it”, which were “duly returned to him by 2019”.
“All payments from BBF to any Piscopo-related entity were legitimate and properly due as evidenced above.”
Piscopo was the CEO of the Lands Authority in 2019 when the Fortina waiver went through. Between 2016 and 2018, while serving as Transport Malta CEO, he was a shareholder in a private company, BBF Ltd. The shareholders of BBF were companies whose UBOs were Piscopo, Zammit Tabona and others.
The intelligence report indicates that he received in excess of €50,000 from Zammit Tabona-linked firms in 2019. A few months after being forced to resign all public roles, Piscopo was also awarded an €11,800-a-month consultancy with Ozo Group, part-owned by Zammit Tabona.
Piscopo confirmed his employment with Ozo Group, which he said continues to this very day “on business development and strategic guidance, while providing support to various connected companies, specific project management initiatives, and internationalisation”.
“James Piscopo has been a senior member of the Ozo Group team since 2021, and to this very day, he provides the group with a professional contribution backed by his academic background and demonstrated senior management experience,” OZO Group’s spokesperson wrote in response to reporters’ questions about the transactions, rejecting any claims of wrongdoing.
Piscopo’s Conflict of Interest
Piscopo only declared his conflict of interest with Fortina’s owners in September 2018, after journalists raised questions months into his appointment. He insisted that he did not engage “in any conduct that could have influenced the course of decisions or actions” but could “not exclude the possibility of having been asked to provide [Fortina] updates”.
Piscopo divested his shares in BBF Ltd., the company he co-owned with Zammit Tabona, when he took over as Lands Authority CEO in July 2018. The documents were submitted to MBR in October 2018, the month following the discovery of the conflict of interest.
In submissions to the NAO, a Fortina representative admitted approaching Piscopo “for assistance on Fortina’s request for the rescission of conditions burdening its site”.
“One of the representatives of Fortina conceded that he had known the CEO Lands Authority for several years and that the latter was a close friend of his. He admitted that he had had a business connection with the CEO Lands Authority, but emphasised that this had ended long before and that, at this juncture, this posed no conflict of interest.”, the report reads.
Fortina said Piscopo refused to intervene, instead directing them to Lino Farrugia Sacco, the Chairman of the Lands Authority. Farrugia Sacco, who died in 2021, was later found by the NAO to have withheld a report showing higher valuations, warning it “would create problems for him.”
Despite this, Piscopo was provided with the minutes of the Board of Governors meetings discussing the deal. The NAO also noted that in September 2018, Piscopo disclosed to the media that negotiations with Fortina were ongoing, even though he was supposedly not party to the process.
Email showing Piscopo receive minutes on valuation in April 2019
Keith Schembri, the former chief of staff for the Office of the Prime Minister, also told the National Auditor that he held weekly meetings with then-Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Lands Minister, the PA CEO and Piscopo, in his capacity as Lands Authority CEO, to discuss major development and investment projects, including that of Fortina.
The NAO highlighted inconsistencies in Schembri’s timeline and later contradictions in his testimony. In later submissions, Schembri, considered by the NAO as part of a wider effort to conceal the valuation by the audit firm, said that Piscopo’s friendship with Fortina “rendered resort to the OPM redundant”, raising NAO concerns.
The NAO report has determined that Fortina were the recipient of a significant information leak.
The Auditor General noted that, by 4th February 2019, Fortina was already in possession of the €8.1 million valuation by the Architects’ Lands Authority, before the Board of Governors meeting, since its counterproposal explicitly referenced the figure.
Fortina later confirmed that this valuation triggered its own €2.7 million counter-valuation.
Fortina told Amphora Media that “Edward Zammit Tabona has always conducted himself in a correct manner as CEO of the Group” and that while it was not in a position to comment, it stressed that Piscopo abstained in discussions or decisions on the waiver.
It went to raise doubts about the conclusions of the NAO report, insisting that it “ identified inconsistencies and serious flaws” in the methodology.
The €46,000+ Payment And The €11,800 A Month Contract: Piscopo’s Links to Zammit Tabona
At the heart of the payments between Piscopo and Zammit Tabona was Roswell Management Limited, formerly known as Undecim Five Investments Limited, Piscopo’s private company.
An intelligence report shows that between 2017 and 2022, Piscopo’s companies had transactions with three entities linked to Fortina’s owners:
- BBF Limited – a company Piscopo co-owned and founded with Fortina’s Edward Zammit Tabona, Sharlon Pace, and others. He divested in July 2018.
- Shed Investments Limited – a company founded and, at the time, co-owned by Zammit Tabona.
- Ozo Group – a company where Zammit Tabona is a 12.5% shareholder.
Zammit Tabona is the CEO of Fortina Investments Ltd – the holding company behind the Fortina Hotel and the surrounding development, which includes the Bet365 office block, and is involved in OzoGroup, Captain Morgan ferries, and other ventures.
An intelligence report shows that in 2017, Piscopo’s company issued several cheques totalling €64,541 in favour of BBF Limited. Piscopo says this figure was €46,541.
In 2019, the year Fortina was awarded the €8.1 million deal, Piscopo’s company received €46,541 from BBF Limited and a further €8,642 from Shed Investments Limited.
By 2021, Piscopo began to receive structured payments from Ozo Group, another company part-owned by Zammit Tabona, for “strategic, general and project management advisory services”.
OZOMALTA Limited, a company wholly owned by Ozo Group, paid Piscopo’s Roswell €11,800 each month from April 2021 to March 2022.
“My independent [of Fortina Group] business interests include minority shareholdings and directorship in BBF, and minority shareholding in OZO Group,” Zammit Tabona wrote in response to Amphora’s questions. “All payments from BBF to any Piscopo-related entity were legitimate and properly due as evidenced above. Regarding OZO Group, Mr Piscopo provided and still provides professional services to the company.”
The contract began a few months after Piscopo resigned from his public roles following revelations that he was under investigation by the police concerning his alleged ties to corruption.
“When the process for the waiver of the two restrictions was initiated, Mr Piscopo did not form part of the Lands Authority. When he subsequently became CEO, he had no part in the decision over the rescission of the conditions. Any suggestion that my relationship with Mr Piscopo was leveraged for Fortina’s benefit is, to say the least, unfair,” Zammit Tabona said.
The payments were made via standing order, two by cheque. Piscopo reportedly provided authorities with a contract detailing the provision of strategic, general, and project management advisory services. An invoice was also provided explaining that the €10,000 related to the services and €1,800 was the 18% VAT Tax Rate.
The Times of Malta had previously revealed how former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat allegedly received payments from Fortina soon after stepping down as Prime Minister in 2020.
“Your assertion seems to indicate to your readers that I receive ‘payments’ for nothing. I can confirm that wherever I receive payments, it is as remuneration for professional work that I would have carried out,” Muscat said at the time.
Over five years, Roswell’s accounts were mainly credited by: BBF, Ozo Group, Shed Limited and Reanda, a company part-owned by Robert Borg, an accountant and former secretary of Transport Malta who has served on numerous entities’ boards and councils. (read more about business dealings involving Piscopo and Borg).
Investigators reported that there was no activity in Roswell’s bank accounts in 2018 and 2020. This raised suspicions among investigators that “Roswell Management may have been set up for dubious purposes”.
The Lands Authority and the Malta Police Force did not respond to questions.
A timeline of events can be found below:
12th June 1991: Fortel Services Ltd, which then operated Fortina, purchases the first site, which includes land and airspace, from the government for €256,231.
25th January 1996: Another contract of sale was entered into by the Government and Fortel for 2,992 square metres of public land for €249,243.
15th February 2000: Through the third contract of sale and transfer, the Government sold a portion of land measuring approximately 1,421 square metres for €931,749.
18th August 2016: James Piscopo co-founded BBF Ltd, which included Edward Zammit Tabona as a shareholder.
3rd February 2017: Lands Authority was established, replacing the Government Property Department (GPD).
22nd March 2017: Fortina request clearance from the GPD to submit a development planning application for the site.
3rd April 2017: Charles Mangion, at the time a Government MP and now MTA Chairman, submitted a request on behalf of Fortina to the Lands Authority for the waiver of certain restrictions imposed on the area earmarked for development.
2017: Piscopo’s company issues several cheques totalling €64,541 to BBF Limited.
20th April 2018: Revised valuation from the Lands Authority architect is submitted, putting it at €8,100,000. They include only one part of the site in this valuation, on the order of the then-Lands Authority CEO Carlo Mifsud.
1st July 2018: James Piscopo is appointed as Lands Authority CEO
27th September 2018: PA approves Fortina development. That same day, the media sent questions regarding Piscopo’s business connections with the owners of the Fortina Hotel.
28th September 2018: Piscopo discloses that he has two companies with common shareholding as Zammit Tabona.
4th February 2019: Unprompted, Fortina prepared feedback in response, citing the €8,100,000 valuation despite this not being disclosed by the Authority.
25th March 2019: An independent audit firm submits valuation – €18,341,559 in present terms or €23,887,942 if settled on completion.
17th July 2019: Parliament approves a deal under which Fortina would pay €1,000,000 up front and another €7,100,000 over up to 10 years (following the Deed of Amendment) in return for the rescission of certain development/use restrictions on its site.
2019: Piscopo’s company receives €46,541 from BBF Limited and €8,642 from Shed Investments Limited, two companies linked to Fortina’s CEO, Edward Zammit Tabona.
April 2021: After resigning from public roles, Piscopo begins receiving €11,800 a month from Ozo Group, where Zammit Tabona is a shareholder.
7th May 2021: Arnold Cassola requests that the National Audit Office investigate the case.
31st December 2024: By this date, of the €8,100,000 payable, Fortina has paid the Government €2,925,424, leaving a balance of €5,174,576. The outstanding amount is to be settled by July 2029.
15th September 2025: The NAO publishes a report finding that Lino Farrugia Sacco (chair of the Lands Authority Board) and other officials withheld an audit-firm valuation and recommended that relevant authorities investigate further, given the seriousness of the discrepancy.
The Fast Ferry and Marina di Valletta: The Zammit Tabonas Major Contracts Under Piscopo
Zammit Tabona family has been the recipient of other government tenders while Piscopo was at the helm at first at Transport Malta and then at the Lands Authority.
- In 2021, the Zammit Tabonas and their partners, including Malta Public Transport, launched a fast ferry service between Malta and Gozo. This was after at least three requests for proposals by the government issued under Piscopo’s tenure were shot down. The Shift News reported claims from competitors Virtu Ferries Limited that they were “written to fit a particular company”. Virtu and Gozo Fast Ferry have since merged to form Gozo High Speed. “Virtu’s position on the matter is clearly outlined in the appeal which was filed by Virtu before the Public Contracts Appeals Board (and the subsequent related proceedings),” the company’s representative wrote in response to Amphora’s questions.
- Zammit Tabona and his mother, Veronica, are shareholders in the consortium that won the bid to operate Marina di Valletta in 2015. The shares were transferred to Zammit Tabona in 2023.
Piscopo served as the Labour Party’s CEO in the run-up to its 2013 electoral victory and was a key member of Joseph Muscat’s inner circle. He was appointed executive chairman (CEO and chairman) of Transport Malta from 2013 to June 2018 and then later the CEO of the Lands Authority from July 2018 to December 2020, when it was revealed that he was subject to a Police investigation.
James Piscopo received suspicious cheques while contracts from Malta Public Transport and Kappara Junction were awarded
Amphora Media revealed earlier this year that Piscopo received €30,000 in suspicious cheques from Robert Borg, the same year the contracts for both the management of Malta Public Transport and the development of Kappara Junction were awarded.
Borg has been charged in connection with the Vitals Global Healthcare case and has previously faced controversy due to his lucrative earnings from the General Workers Union’s publicly funded community work scheme.
In seven of the nine cheques cashed by Piscopo, Borg was both the payer and payee – effectively writing them out to himself. They were then endorsed to Piscopo, who deposited them into his account. Investigators suspect this method was intended to obscure the transactions.
Borg also transferred €20,000 to Piscopo’s Roswell/Undecim Five company, while Undecim Five transferred €10,000 to Borg.
At the time of the earlier publication, Piscopo confirmed that he received the payments from Borg, with whom he said he has a longstanding friendship. However, he insisted that the payments were linked to a consultancy firm he operated with Borg while serving as CEO of Transport Malta and the Lands Authority. Borg denied any wrongdoing.
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