Insight: The woman tasked with overhauling PN’s financial troubles

On Thursday, newly elected Nationalist Party leader Alex Borg handed over control of PN’s business operations to Sabine Agius Cabourdin, a lawyer and philanthropist, appointing her party CEO.

Agius Cabourdin will be tasked with running the party’s business interests, managing its properties and subsidiaries and, ultimately, reviving the party’s ailing finances.

Off the back of a leadership campaign often marked by questions over how the party can maximise its assets and get its finances out of the red, Agius Cabourdin is likely to play a key part if the party is to turn its fortunes around.

Agius Cabourdin is far from a household name, with Thursday’s announcement marking her first major step into the world of local politics.

The PN will be hoping that Agius Cabourdin’s acumen in running an established NGO will translate to running a party and bring about a much-needed shakeup across its business structures.

However, critics have questioned the choice of Agius Cabourdin, pointing to her proximity to known developers, her alleged involvement in the controversial golden passport scheme and her husband’s links to a co-accused in the Vitals case.

Philanthropist and lawyer

Agius Cabourdin made her name at the helm of the FIDEM Foundation, a non-profit she founded in 2018 to provide support and educational opportunities to vulnerable groups, particularly women and children.

FIDEM’s work in providing women, often victims of domestic abuse, a fresh start to life is well documented, with several women publicly telling of the support they received from the organisation after leaving an abusive relationship.

Away from philanthropy, Agius Cabourdin, who also holds French citizenship, also runs a successful legal practice, having first graduated as a lawyer in 2008.

Her legal firm, SA Consult, lists property and commercial law among its specialisations, encouraging foreign clients to invest in Malta’s “booming real estate market, sound infrastructure, company incentives and expanding economy”.

However, the firm’s website also lists ‘residency schemes’ as part of the firm’s expertise, promoting Malta’s controversial golden passport scheme, a

frequent target of criticism from her own party, which argued that “Maltese citizenship should never be for sale”.

When asked about the matter, Agius Cabourin said the website “was set up many years ago, with most of its content prepared by an outsourced writer”. Although the website makes “generic reference” to the golden passport scheme, she insisted that she has “never sold citizenship schemes”.

Close to developers?

Alex Borg’s choice of Agius Cabourdin is also unlikely to appease those critics who claim he is in too close to developers.

Agius Cabourdin’s husband, Neville Agius, is a successful developer, known for his role in several construction and restoration projects around the island.

Some of Agius’s projects have hit the headlines in recent years.

Restoration works on Valletta’s dilapidated Palazzo Carafa drew criticism from heritage experts over the removal of a wooden stage from the palace’s theatre.

Meanwhile, Agius’s plans to build a lavish villa in the heart of a protected valley raised eyebrows when they were approved on the back of a decades-old planning permit, prompting calls for a probe by PN MP Albert Buttigieg.

Nevertheless, her husband’s profession as a developer has not prevented Agius Cabourdin from voicing her frustration at Malta’s lax approach to the construction industry in the past.

Following the collapse of Tania Flats in June, she took to Facebook to call for stricter enforcement and higher fines, saying “the culture of construction in Malta needs a complete paradigm shift”.

Earlier still, following the death of Syrian construction worker in Rabat, she argued that “an overhaul in the construction industry is desperately needed”.

Business connections

Arguably more controversial than her husband’s involvement in the construction sector, however, is Agius’s association with Pierre Sladden, one of the co-accused in the Vitals case.

Agius co-owns a company named Castille Investments with fellow developer Ruben Magro and businessman Pierre Sladden. Agius owns a 25% stake in the company.

Sladden, who investigators believe was plotting to take control of medical supply company Technoline (together with Keith Schembri, Konrad Mizzi and Adrian Hillman), is facing criminal charges for money laundering, using false documents and criminal association in the Vitals case.

Sladden had hit the headlines years prior, when he was among the handful of local figures named in the Panama Papers. The leaks revealed that he co-owned a Cypriot-based company, A2Z Consulta together with Keith Schembri and Adrian Hillman.

When contacted, Agius Cabourdin confirmed her husband’s co-ownership of Castille Investments but insisted that he has “no business relations with Pierre Sladden”.

“The company was set up in 2016 for the purchase of one property, which was sold a couple of years later. It never traded again after this sale,” she said.

Never sold citizenship schemes- Sabine Agius Cabourdin

Agius Cabourdin and her husband are also the co-owners and directors of a company called Cultural Heritage Projects.

Information on the company’s activities is limited, but public records show that it previously listed Nexia BT as its auditors.

“To be clear, our work collaboration ended long before he (Nexia BT owner Brian Tonna) was caught up in all his scandals,” Agius Cabourdin said when asked about the matter.

Business records show that the company formally cut ties with Nexia BT on May 14 2018, more than a year after then-opposition leader Simon Busuttil had implicated Tonna in a kickback scheme linked to Malta’s golden passports.

Agius Cabourdin is also listed as a director in another company, Wignacourt Investments, having taken her husband’s place on the board in 2017.

“It is with great pride that I can relay that this has had a fantastic repercussion on all cultural and heritage fronts. Wignacourt museum is a jewel of Maltese cultural heritage,” Agius Cabourdin said when asked about her involvement in the company.