Cecil Pace, head of former Bical Bank, passes away

Cecil Pace, former head of the defunct Bical Bank and one of Malta’s biggest businessmen 40 years ago, has passed away. He was 89.

At the height of his career, he was one of Malta’s major industrial players, presiding over the BICAL Group (Bank of Industry, Commerce and Agriculture Ltd) and its myriad interests in hotels, automobiles, tourism and property amongst others and employing over 4,000 persons. The Bical Bank collapsed in 1972.

In November 1972, Cecil and his brother Henry faced charges of misappropriation of depositors’ money after three years during which the Central Bank had flagged the bank’s low levels of liquidity. It took well over 30 years for depositors to be paid back their money.

Central Bank inspectors first raised the alert over the state of Bical in 1970. The bank was closed on 25 November, 1972 owing to a shortage of liquidity and Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, later prime minister, was appointed liquidator.

The directors always insisted that assets far exceeded liabilities.

Both were however convicted of misappropriation, fraud and forgery. Cecil Pace was jailed for 14 years and Henry to nine.

Cecil Pace was released from prison in 1985 and subsequently launched legal proceedings against Dr Mifsud Bonnici.

He claimed that Bical and its associated 30 companies had owned six hotels, seven ships, a shipyard and other immovable property which were valued at €7 million but Dr Mifsud Bonnici, as controller, had failed to administer the assets correctly and had sold them at ridiculous prices. He had moreover failed to keep proper records save for some notes on a school exercise book.

After his release from prison, Cecil Pace opened a number of legal cases against the BICAL controllers, the men who were appointed by the government from time to time to slowly sell off assets in a bid to return depositors their monies.