The purchases were made while Galdes held senior responsibility for the housing sector, first as Parliamentary Secretary for Social Housing, a role he assumed in 2017, and later as Minister responsible for the sector from 2020 onwards.

The first trace of Roderick Galdes’ property activity in Italy appears in Catania. On 6 December 2019, Galdes and his wife, Joanne Galdes, jointly purchased a 20-square-metre ground-floor unit at Cortile Litrico. 

Joanne Galdes is a director at Wasteserv and has held roles at the Office of the Commissioner for Voluntary Organisations.

Galdes’ next documented property appears in Rosolini, in the province of Siracusa. According to the local land registry, Galdes and his wife jointly own a villa in Contrada Cavetta Amenta, measuring approximately 177 square metres. 

The building was originally registered as a collabente, an uninhabitable or derelict structure, and was formally converted into a residential property in June 2022. 

A year later, Galdes made another move in Ragusa. Land registry records show that on 15th June 2023, he purchased a large villa complex on Modica–Giarratana, comprising a main residence and a smaller unit.

Unlike his earlier properties, this acquisition is registered entirely in Galdes’ name. A formal renovation was recorded shortly after the transaction, confirming the site’s redevelopment.

The Ragusa records also show that Galdes holds agricultural land in the same area, acquired through a series of purchase deeds in June 2022 and July 2023. 

These holdings include two agricultural parcels owned jointly on a 50% basis with Norbert Bellia, a Malta-born co-owner, as well as a smaller parcel in which Galdes holds a 1/8th share, alongside Bellia and two local Italian owners, Paola and Maria Occhipinti. 

In 2024, an application by Galdes and Bellia to develop agricultural land in Ragusa was rejected.

Bellia appears to be a car dealer. In Malta, this name appears on numerous applications to develop sites into apartments and car showrooms.

A piece of agricultural land with a building in Sicily is listed within Galdes’ 2021 asset declaration.

Galdes’ most recent documented property activity appears far from Sicily. 

According to the Udine land registry, Galdes and his wife jointly own three residential units in Forni di Sopra, a mountain village in the Dolomites.

The apartments were derived from a formal administrative division registered on 10th October 2025, rather than through individual purchases. The three units together total 10.5 rooms and remain jointly owned by the couple.

According to Google Maps, it appears that it comprises an entire residential block.

Galdes and his property deals have been under the microscope ever since Marlene Mizzi, the former chairperson of Malita Investments, accused him of interfering in the company’s operations and of “hobnobbing” with contractors that the company had engaged.

The Times of Malta have since revealed two property deals between Galdes and Excel Investments, a property development company owned by Joseph Portelli, Mark Agius, and Daniel Refalo.

According to his 2021 asset declaration, the most recent available, Galdes also owns properties in Luqa, Xagħra, Qormi, Siġġiewi, Middlesex, and Sicily.

Galdes, for his part, has described the criticism as an “attack on him and his family” and has denied all allegations.

When asked by reporters about Galdes’s property portfolio, Prime Minister Robert Abela stated that he was satisfied with the explanations provided, which claimed that the majority of properties were purchased before Galdes became minister.

Galdes did not respond to a request for comment from Amphora Media.

On 17th July 2019, Parliament approved a waiver to lift long-standing restrictions on government land owned by Fortina. Documents obtained by Amphora Media show that on 6th August, Fortina Developments sold a part of that same site to Hillside (New Media Malta Property) Limited, a company ultimately owned by Bet365 Group Limited, for €40 million.

Bet365 declined to comment. Fortina’s lawyers told Amphora Media that “the transaction in question was conducted between commercial entities through properly executed public deeds, which are matters of public record and accessible for your review. These deeds contain the complete factual record of the transaction.”

Parliament approved the waiver on development restrictions for €8.1 million. A report by the National Audit Office found an independent valuation of €18 to €23 million was suppressed by government officials. 

One of these restrictions was a ban on any above-ground construction or development in the area.

Fortina secured the €40 million promise of sale with Hillside against an €8 million deposit on 14th February 2018, a year and a half before the land restrictions were lifted by Parliament.

This was two months before the Planning Authority received Fortina’s application permit over a change of use to office space.  It was approved in October 2018.

The deal included several airspace parcels of land within the entire site:

• A 1,645 square metre site,
• A 940 square metre site,
• A 978 square metre site,
• A building permit awarded to Fortina Developments Ltd, the company led by CEO Edward Zammit Tabona (PA 03913/18),
• The use and modification of the existing car park.

According to the deed, Hillside (New Media Malta Property) Limited has “free and unencumbered” ownership of the site, including against “any rights in favour of the Government or any other public authority”.

The €40 million sale does not include the Hotel development or other sites on the land that are still owned through Fortina-linked companies.

Hillside’s accounts in 2019 also list a separate €33.9 million expense for the construction and development of the building, of which almost €1.7 million had already been paid by that time.

The deed of sale references the “Arapa Deed”, which was a tripartite legal agreement between the Planning Authority, the Malta Tourism Authority, and Fortel Services Limited.

This earlier deed imposed an obligation on Fortel to restrict the use of the hotel development to tourist accommodation only, strictly prohibiting its use for permanent residential occupation. 

The deed of sale included specific clauses, such as the creation of the FSL Easement, designed to protect Hillside’s acquired property in the event of a breach of the Arapa Deed that could impact the entire project.

The Journey from a €250,000 deed to a €40 million sale

The site is part of the land Fortina acquired through multiple government deeds, which had restrictions lifted as part of the €8.1 million deal.

Fortina acquired the site for just under €250,000 in a 1996 government deed. The deed gave Fortina “free and unencumbered” use of the land, against several strict conditions:

• Construction was restricted to remain below specified reference points, but certain exceptions were allowed, including a swimming pool (up to 730 m²), boundary walls, toilets, garden landscaping, emergency exits, an Enemalta sub-station, and the reconstruction of the bocci pitch with ancillary facilities.
• It would be used exclusively for the hotel’s extension.

Corporate records and public registry documents show that, over 20 years later, on 14th February 2018, Hillside (New Media Malta Property) Limited & Fortina Developments Limited entered into a promise of sale agreement to acquire the airspace, car park spaces, and shaft for €40 million, paying an €8 million deposit.

More than 18 months later, on 17th July 2019, Parliament waived all restrictions on that site and several others for just €8.1 million. On 6th August, Fortina sold that portion for €40 million.

Fortina’s Cut-Price Waiver To Lift Restrictions And The NAO

Fortina acquired all the sites in government deeds between 1991 and 2000 for a total value of around €1.4 million. The land was handed to Fortina for the sole purpose of extending its hotel on the site into apartments, offices, and commercial spaces. 

The government approved the €8.1 million waiver. But an independent valuation, suppressed by the Lands Authority, placed the land’s value between €18.3 million and €23.9 million, depending on the payment terms.

That’s 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 over the next 10 years. By the end of 2024, Fortina had so far spent some €2.9 million, leaving a balance of around €5.1 million, which is to be settled entirely by July 2029.

The Lands Authority has been instructed by the Parliamentary Audit Committee to conduct a new valuation of the Fortina waiver, following a report by the National Audit Office that revealed significant discrepancies in the original assessment. 

The report also found that Lino Farrugia Sacco, the then-Lands Authority Chairman, had withheld a valuation placing the land’s worth at €18 million

Farrugia Sacco, who died in 2021, warned the valuation “would create problems for him.”

Former Lands CEO Received Payments From Fortina’s Boss the Year Sliema Land Was Undervalued By €13M

A previous collaborative investigation by Amphora Media and the Times of Malta revealed an intelligence report that detailed how former Lands Authority CEO James Piscopo received payments from a company owned by Fortina’s CEO, Edward Zammit Tabona, in the same year Parliament approved the deal.

Piscopo declared his conflict of interest with Fortina’s owners in September 2018, after journalists raised questions months into his appointment.

The intelligence report indicated 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 and Zammit Tabona confirmed the payments. However, both said the payments were private and legitimate and had no connection to the waiver.

The NAO report has determined that Fortina was the recipient of a significant information leak on the deal.

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.

In a statement following the PAC order, Fortina reportedly issued a statement insisting that the “maximum fair value would at best range between €3.5 to €7.4 million”.

“We paid significantly more than the current fair value standards. Not only did we not benefit from an advantageous valuation, but we were significantly disadvantaged,” it said.

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.

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.

This story has been fact-checked by an independent fact-checker.

• Investigators believe Spanish contractors involved in the Kappara Junction and Malta Public Transport channelled millions to the nephew of a former Spanish MP. The former MP is facing a corruption trial.
• The nephew’s companies then allegedly transferred funds to blacklisted former Joseph Muscat government advisor Shiv Nair.
• Former Transport Malta CEO James Piscopo received suspicious cheques from accountant Robert Borg the same year both contracts were awarded.
• Transaction records seen by Amphora Media show:
  • Shiv Nair and his companies received €2.3 million net from an affiliated company allegedly part of the scheme.
  • James Piscopo received €30,000 in suspicious cheques issued by Robert Borg. He also received a net €10,000 from Borg through a separate account.
  • Spanish contractors of Kappara Junction sent €263,000 to a company owned by the nephew of the former Spanish MP.
• Keith Schembri once used Yorgen Fenech to try to leak documents linking Piscopo to alleged payments.

Multi-million payments issued to Shiv Nair, the blacklisted former advisor of Joseph Muscat’s government, are suspected of forming part of a kickback scheme on the Kappara Junction and Malta Public Transport contracts.

Transaction records uncovered in an investigation by Amphora Media, MaltaToday, and Times of Malta reveal that Nair and his affiliated companies received a net amount of €2.3 million from Aitken Spencer Ltd – a company owned by his director’s brother that investigators believe is tied to the scheme.

Meanwhile, investigators have also flagged a series of suspicious cheques issued to former Transport Malta CEO James Piscopo.

Piscopo received €30,000 across nine cheques in 2015, the year the contracts for the Kappara Junction Project and the management of Malta Public Transport were awarded.

Piscopo received the cheques from Robert Borg, an accountant and former secretary of Transport Malta who has served on numerous entities’ boards and councils.

Borg has been charged in connection to the Vitals Global Healthcare case and has previously faced controversy for 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.

Amphora Media has been informed of further payments between Borg and Piscopo’s Undecim Five Investments, a company he later renamed and which was eventually dissolved. Borg transferred €20,000 to Piscopo’s Undecim Five – while Undecim Five transferred €10,000 to Borg. 

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 Transport Malta & Lands Authority CEO. He said taking those payments was “stupid” but not illegal and ultimately rejected any links to the alleged kickback scheme.

He could not explain why the cheques were issued before the company’s creation – nor why Borg initially wrote the cheques out to himself. Borg refused to answer questions sent surrounding his transactions with Piscopo.

Piscopo said that the Kappara Junction Project was fully audited and stressed he had little to no knowledge of who Shiv Nair is.

Amphora Media found no financial records linking Nair and Piscopo. Borg disputed transaction records between himself and a Maltese company owned by Nair. He insisted that he had never met or had dealings with Nair.

Nair refused to answer any questions about the claims.

“I am a private businessman and not a public servant. Moreover, and perhaps more to the point, my companies have always conducted their activities in Malta and elsewhere in a regular and lawful manner and do not need to provide explanations with respect to their legitimate dealings,” he said. 

The Spanish Connection

In 2015, Spanish-led contractors won two large infrastructure tenders. A consortium led by Constructora San Jose SA won a tender to build the Kappara junction, while Autobuses de Leon was chosen as the new private operator for the public transport system. On the surface, the tenders appear unrelated.

Sources have revealed that Spanish authorities have reportedly identified a total of €5.14 million in transfers from the accounts of Constructora San Jose SA (the Spanish partner in the Kappara Junction joint venture) and a company called Malta Public Transport (the brand name of operator Autobuses de Leon, a sister company of  ALSA) to two companies in Spain: Hasaura Real Estate SL and Translock IT SL.

The director of these two companies is Luis Carlos Yanguas Gómez de la Serna, the nephew of Spanish former MP Pedro Ramon Gomez de la Serna.

Pedro Ramón Gómez de la Serna and another former MP, Gustavo de Arístegui, have been charged in Spain with heading a criminal organisation to obtain foreign contracts in a case that lists Constructora San Jose as a client company. 

ALSA is listed as a client of Voltar Lassen, a firm owned by Pedro de la Serna and Gustavo de Arístegui.  Malta Public Transport’s owner, Autobuses de Leon, is a sister company of ALSA group. ALSA emphasised that it was separate from Autobuses de Leon when responding to questions.

In the Spanish police probe, Luis Carlos Yanguas Gómez de la Serna was found to appear to have acted as a “commission agent” for the company at the centre of the investigation.  Luis Carlos Yanguas Gómez de la Serna stopped working with Voltar Lassen in January 2014. He was not charged in connection to the case.

Amphora Media has seen records of six transactions worth approx. €263,000 between Constructora San Jose and Hasaura Real Estate.

Pedro Ramon Gomez de la Serna and his lawyer rejected any suggestions that he had any knowledge or connection with the alleged scheme – and stressed that Luis Carlos Yanguas Gómez de la Serna stopped working with Voltar Lassen before the transactions linked to Kappara Junction and Malta Public Transport – and had since set up an independent consultancy firm.

Transport Malta said that both the Kappara project and Malta Public Transport contract were audited by the European Commission and National Audit Office, respectively – it said none of the payments were mentioned and that it would not be privy to any of the payments mentioned in our questions. 

Malta Public Transport categorically denied the claims. It said that Hasaura Real Estate SL & Translock IT SL provided “specific services required by MPT and provided to MPT by its suppliers” – and said these were in no way related to the awarding of the public transport concession. However, it did not respond to questions to clarify the services provided.

Autobuses de Leon said that MPT signed an agreement with Hasaura Real Estate in 2015 to optimise the management of its fleet and later transferred it to Translock IT. It said it used this management software from March 2015 to June 2020.

It rejected all wrongdoing and denied any knowledge of Nair.

The ex-MP’s nephew Luis Carlos Yanguas said the payments involving his companies Hasaura Real Estate SL and Translock IT had nothing to do with his uncle. 

Yanguas said the payments were part of a “client-supplier relationship”, and were backed up by all the necessary documentation and agreements. 

Constructora San Jose’ insisted that it acts under the strictest legality. Constructora San Jose’ did not respond to questions as to why it was also issuing payments to Hasaura Real Estate.

Payments allegedly flow from Spanish companies to Shiv Nair

After arriving in the accounts of Yanguas de la Serna’s companies, a portion of the funds originating from Malta Public Transport was allegedly transferred to Shiv Nair through a Hong Kong-based company, Aitken Spencer Ltd.  

Transaction records seen by Amphora Media show that between 2014 and 2020, Nair and his affiliated companies, Suez Group Finance and Suez Group Capital, received a net amount of €2.3 million from Aitken Spencer Limited.

Aitken Spencer Ltd’s director and shareholder is Subodha Manahara Withanage. It was incorporated in Hong Kong on 27th January 2015, the same year the contracts were awarded.

Withanage’s brother appears to be Rasika Withanage, a director at Nair’s Suez Capital, who has also held significant roles and worked in other companies linked to Nair. Amphora Media has seen transactions to Rasika Withanage, which are believed to be his salary.

The Withanage mother’s residence is listed as the headquarters of Suez Holdings in Sri Lanka.

Nair has been permanently blacklisted by the World Bank for fraud and corruption since 1999 – as exposed by Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2013. Still, he served as an advisor on energy and foreign direct investment within the government of Joseph Muscat. 

At the time Nair denied the accusations, but the World Bank has confirmed to Amphora Media that the blacklisting still applies.

Caruana Galizia had also reported on Nair’s connections to former MP Pedro Ramón Gómez de la Serna. Gomez de la Serna confirmed that he met Shiv Nair, but he described it as a coincidence.

Kappara Junction and Malta Public Transport Contract Raised Red Flags

Autobuses de Leon won a tender to take over the ownership and management of Malta Public Transport on 8th January 2015. Piscopo, who was Transport Malta’s CEO at the time, chaired the tender evaluation committee and oversaw the selection. 

Eyebrows were first raised in 2014 when a visit by then-Transport Minister Joe Mizzi and Piscopo to Spain as part of the selection process for the new public transport operator was shrouded in secrecy.

The National Audit Office later flagged the lack of documentation on negotiations between Transport Malta and the winning bidder as a concern. 

The contract is valid until 2030.

A week after the Autobuses de Leon takeover, the five potential bidders for the Kappara Junction were announced, with SJ Kappara JV, which involved Maltese partners, winning the bid in December of that year. The project cost was budgeted to cost €22.5 million and was inaugurated in January 2018. The final cost was estimated at around €35 million. 

The project benefited from EU funding intended for less developed regions. Transport Malta even involved European Investment Bank experts to provide an “independent positive recommendation of the [Kappara Junction] project’s feasibility”.

Keith Schembri claimed James Piscopo received kickbacks from major projects 

Allegations of Piscopo receiving kickbacks on infrastructural projects are not new. In December 2020, the Times of Malta revealed that the Malta police had launched an investigation into Piscopo.

Read the story by the Times of Malta here

According to reports in the Times of Malta, in 2019, former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri attempted to use Yorgen Fenech to leak a story to the media, alleging that Piscopo had received a considerable amount of money.

Schembri is believed to have provided Fenech with documentation showing Piscopo’s dealings, including his offshore account at Nedbank Private Wealth (formerly Fairbairn Private Bank) in Jersey. Schembri alleged that the funds held at the bank could be upwards of €600,000.

Intelligence obtained by investigators suggests that Piscopo does hold a bank account at Nedbank Private Wealth (formerly Fairbairn Private Bank) in Jersey. 

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 of Transport Malta and then later the Lands Authority CEO following Labour’s rise to power but no longer holds that role.

Apart from his job there as CEO, Piscopo also chaired the state’s utility billing company, ARMS Ltd, and sat on the boards of Enemalta and Projects Malta.

Piscopo resigned soon after the claims were made public.

Malta’s police declined to comment on the status of the investigation or whether an investigation was ever opened into the alleged kickback scheme involving the Kappara Junction and Malta Public Transport contracts.