Mark Gaffarena may not have an easy job getting his hands on more of the Valletta property at the centre of the scandal that bears his name, after the co-owners claimed he had acted in bad faith.

In a court case he initiated, they argued that they could not meet his demand to honour a promise-of-sale agreement they had signed with him before the scandal was exposed, as the agreement was based on fraud.

Co-owners were left out of the deal despite the fact that the government now owns part of their share

The Sunday Times of Malta revealed a year ago that Mr Gaffarena had acquired a half undivided share of a prestigious property in Old Mint Street for a pittance, only to sell it to the government at a cost to taxpayers of over €3 million.

Investigating the suspicious expropriation deal, the National Audit Office (NAO) subsequently found there had been “collusion” between the Land Department, Mr Gaffarena and former planning parliamentary secretary Michael Falzon, who eventually resigned.

But before the scandal first broke, the developer had already managed to sign two more promise-of-sale agreements for additional shares in the property at an extremely reduced price.

Last month, he threatened legal action if the co-owners did not sell their share of part of the property to him for a fraction of what it is now worth, arguing they are obliged to meet the promise-of-sale conditions they had agreed to in March 2015.

But the legal team defending the co-owners has drawn the court’s attention to the conclusions of the NAO investigation, saying they show Mr Gaffarena had acted in bad faith. The promise-of-sale agreement was based on fraud and therefore invalid, they contend.

He had already managed to sign two more promise-of-sale agreements

Moreover, a number of the co-owners argue that although the government dealt only with Mr Gaffarena, the expropriation of a half undivided share was from all the co-owners. But they were left out of the deal despite the fact that the government now owns part of their share.

The expropriation meant the co-owners could not proceed with honouring the promise-of-sale agreement with Mr Gaffarena since part of their ownership had been taken over by the government.

The expropriation deal is also the subject of another, unprecedented court case, instituted by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat as an MP against his own government in an attempt to reverse the deal. The co-owners are also involved in that case.