After Hyzler report published, PM says Rosianne Cutajar’s resignation will remain in force
Prime Minister Robert Abela said yesterday that Rosianne Cutajar’s resignation from the post of Parliamentary Secretary will remain in force. This after a report by Standards Commissioner George Hyzler into a controversial property deal involving Cutajar and 17 Black owner Yorgen Fenech was published.
The report was sent to Speaker Anglu Farrugia on Friday, standard procedure when a breach of ethics has been found, who then called an emergency meeting of the Standards Committee, which will discuss the report and decide whether to adopt it or not.
Cutajar’s ethics breach was over a controversial Mdina property transaction she was involved in together with Yorgen Fenech. It is alleged that she pocketed thousands in brokerage fees and also received cash from the 17 Black owner and Daphne Caruana Galizia murder mastermind suspect.
It was reported that she and her close associate Charles Farrugia ‘it-Tikka’ had helped broker the Mdina €3.1 million property deal for Fenech. Fenech was trying to purchase the property from a certain Joe Camilleri.
The deal fell through after Fenech’s November 2019 arrest and arraignment, and Camilleri is said to be chasing Cutajar to have her return a €46,500 brokerage fee he had paid her. Cutajar reportedly received a further €9,000 in cash from Fenech, while Farrugia received €31,000.
In a short statement soon after the report was published, the Prime Minister said that Cutajar’s resignation from her post as Parliamentary Secretary - which has been in force since February and which was said to be pending Hyzler’s investigation - will remain in force.
The government later said that Prime Minister Robert Abela has handed the equality and reforms portfolio previously held by Cutajar to Owen Bonnici.
In his conclusions, Hyzler notes that he was confronted with two diametrically opposite versions, both of which were said under oath.
On one part, he said, Joseph Camilleri – the owner of the company which sought to sell the Mdina property to Yorgen Fenech and who was apparently chasing Cutajar to refund the brokerage fee after the deal fell through – said that Cutajar was co-broker in the deal.
Camilleri said, Hyzler notes, that the brokerage fee doubled when Cutajar got involved in the fee, that he had paid her share of the fee directly to her and that she had confirmed directly that she had counted the money and found the amount to be correct, amongst other statements.
Cutajar denied taking money
On the other hand, Hyzler noted, Cutajar “categorically denied” that she took any money as a brokerage fee.
In transcripts of her testimony to Hyzler in fact, Cutajar frequently says that Camilleri had lied about her when it comes to the deal, and insisted that she was not involved in the deal save for putting Charles Farrugia in contact with Yorgen Fenech on the simple basis that she had known Fenech for a number of years and that Farrugia had sought her help to get in touch with Fenech because he thought that he wouldn’t recognise his number.
However, Hyzler said that there are a number of facts which show that Cutajar was paid a brokerage fee in connection with the Mdina property.
He produces six principle points in this regard: firstly that Cutajar had involved herself in the negotiations on the property by finding the would-be buyer (Yorgen Fenech), went to see the property with him, joined a dinner at Marsamxett where Camilleri paid her or Farrugia – depending which version is believed – and that she picked up the brokerage fee to pass to Farrugia, as she herself testified.
Meeting held at Valletta restaurant
The dinner was at the Porticello restaurant – the same restaurant whose operators, one of which being Darren Debono’s step-daughter are currently facing money laundering charges.
The second is that Charles Farrugia had testified that he had asked for 1.5% of the value of the property as a brokerage fee for him, and then asked for another 1.5% as a brokerage fee for another person. The third is that Farrugia refunded €4,000 of the brokerage fee in payments of €2,000 each.
The fourth is that Farrugia himself admitted that at this point he had mentioned Cutajar, so to “soften” Camilleri’s heart and maybe save the €2,000 which had to be refunded.
The fifth is that when he was asked to refund the rest of the brokerage fee, Farrugia said that Cutajar couldn’t pay her share because she had bought a house.
The sixth is that despite the fact that Farrugia had brought Cutajar into the matter, with her lawyer even recognising that if there was anyone who had created problems for her, it was Farrugia, they had remained intimate friends.
Hyzler also mentions the testimony of lawyer Pierre Lofaro, who said that while the promise of sale agreement was being signed, Farrugia had said that because both he and Cutajar where brokers, it would be best to state that there was no brokerage fee.
Therefore, Hyzler said that he had arrived at the conclusion that the allegations are proven and that there is a prima facie breach of ethics in that Cutajar had failed to declare the brokerage fee in her 2019 declaration of assets.
Report could be sent to Tax Commissioner
Hyzler also recommended that his report and the three volumes of evidence that come with it are sent to the Tax Commissioner so that he can take any action he deems necessary.
Cutajar on Sunday hit out at the decision, calling it unjust and saying that the report contains a lot of “double standards.”
The government MPs, as reported by The Malta Independent on Sunday, pushed for the immediate publication of the report.
The commitee will now meet again on 12 July at 8:30am to discuss the report with Standards Commissioner Hyzler as discussions on whether the report should be adopted will progress.