Ex-fisheries head set to face money-laundering and corruption charges

Former fisheries head Andreina Fenech Farrugia is set to face charges of money-laundering, trading-in-influence and criminal association, Times of Malta has learnt.

Giovanni Ellul, a director of Malta Fish Farming (MFF) Ltd, a local tuna ranching operation, will also be charged for his and the company’s alleged role in the illegal trafficking and sale of bluefin tuna, a protected species that is subject to strict quotas.

The charges come on the back of a magisterial inquiry that first kicked off in 2018. The inquiry was concluded earlier this year, with both Fenech Farrugia and Ellul being interviewed by the police.

Prosecutors are requesting a freeze on their assets, as is the norm in financial crime cases.

MFF were listed as donors to the election campaign of Alicia Bugeja Said, the junior minister responsible for fisheries. Fenech Farrugia’s name first cropped up in 2018, during an investigation coordinated by Europol called Operation Tarantelo.

Investigations revealed that bluefin tuna were being traded illegally in Spain, but imported into the country through French harbours, after being caught in Maltese and Italian waters.

The fish caught in Maltese waters were illegally imported using documents from legal fishing and authorised farms.

Fenech Farrugia was suspended as fisheries director in February 2019, after transcripts of phone intercepts published by a Spanish news outlet suggested she solicited payments from Spanish tuna operator José Fuentes Garcia, whose company runs a tuna farming operation in Malta.

All concerned deny any wrongdoing.

Fenech Farrugia was suspended from her role after the transcripts were published

Spanish court documents seen by Times of Malta allege Fenech Farrugia was involved in supporting the illegal trade and potentially receiving payments while heading the fisheries department.

In the previously publicised phone call transcripts, Fenech Farrugia is alleged to have told Fuentes:

“I am in Bulgaria just for you. You have to pay me because I have a meeting with the [director] general of Brussels,” one transcript says.

In another conversation, Fuentes greets “Andreina” with the words “gorgeous”, to which she replies: “The minister and everyone else wants me”.

Fenech Farrugia allegedly told Fuentes that he “has to pay”, and that (rival tuna firm) Fish & Fish must know of nothing.

Spanish investigators allege the players involved in the racket would register a tuna harvest from Malta-based tuna farms, simulate a false sale of the tuna, then use fake records to introduce undocumented tuna into the supply chain.

A warehouse in Valencia, Spain is alleged to have been used to receive and store the illegally caught tuna that mainly originated from Malta and Italy.

Fenech Farrugia was suspended from her role after the transcripts were published.