Ship repairer’s bribe conviction confirmed

A businessman who was interrogated over his involvement in the oil procurement scandal has had a conditional discharge he received for bribery confirmed by an appeals court.

Anthony Cassar paid generous tips to a man for passing on work to his company

Anthony Cassar, the chairman of Cassar Ship Repair Limited, had been convicted after it resulted that he paid generous tips to a man for passing on ship repair work to his company.

Mr Cassar is one of three shareholders of Island Bunkering Oil Limited, which has been directly implicated in the oil scandal. He has been questioned by the police over the matter.

In the appeal, the court heard that the man paid by Mr Cassar, Ronald Galea, received about €18,300 in 2007, with which he bought a Bavaria 29 cabin cruiser.

Mr Galea was the general manager of a company that represented international shipping agency CMA CGM. Unbeknown to his employer, he received a five per cent tip on every invoice for work he awarded to Mr Cassar’s company. Mr Galea also received an interest free loan of €46,000 from Mr Cassar, with no time limit to repay it. When questioned about this, Mr Cassar said he did not know if any repayments had been made.

Mr Galea was later charged and admitted to accepting the bribe. He was given a two-year jail term suspended for four years. Mr Cassar received a conditional discharge for one year in June 2008 after he was found guilty of bribing Mr Galea. He later filed an appeal.

In his testimony, Mr Cassar said that such a tip paid to Mr Galea was normal in business and argued that the Magistrates Court had incorrectly weighed up the evidence, resulting in erroneously finding him guilty.

Mr Justice Lawrence Quintano dismissed the appeal, saying it was Mr Galea’s duty to award the work to the company with the cheapest offer to carry out the ship repair and not the company giving him a tip.

The judge said that Mr Cassar knew Mr Galea was personally receiving payment and not his employer, and he also knew that he was competing with another company because the payments started to be made when the other company commenced operations. The judge confirmed the conviction.

The police investigation into oil procurement is following two avenues. The first concerns bribes allegedly taken by petrochemist Frank Sammut from Dutch oil giant Trafigura on consignments destined for Enemalta. The second involves MOBC and Island Bunkering Oil Limited, which had taken a significant share of the former’s business.

Besides Mr Cassar, two other shareholders of Island Bunkering have been interrogated: Francis Portelli, also of Virtu Ferries, and former Enemalta chairman Tancred Tabone.