PN leader Adrian Delia faced expenses in the form of loans, overdrafts, credit card bills and other payments of at least €311,463 in 2018, documents reviewed by Times of Malta show.
Delia, who received a gross salary of €44,782 as opposition leader that year, declined to explain when contacted by Times of Malta how the shortfall between his salary and expenses was financed.
He directed Times of Malta to a statement he gave last week about his tax affairs, in which he stated he was in the process of compiling all the documents needed to present to the commission that will be carrying out a due diligence process on himself and fellow PN leadership hopeful Bernard Grech.
Grech last week committed himself to publish a statement about his financial affairs.
Attempts to verify Delia’s 2018 income through a request for his income tax return also failed, as no returns were filed by Delia for that year.
His income tax declarations for 2016 and 2017 showed net earnings of €118,413 and €111,069, respectively, indicating he was already living a lifestyle beyond his means even while still practising as a lawyer.
His now-estranged wife’s income for those same years was €12,660 and €11,965.
One possible additional source of income for 2018 is the sale of shares in his legal practice and consultancy business after stepping down upon his election as PN leader.
Three shares transfer agreements seen by Times of Malta indicate Delia agreed in March 2018 to sell his shares in Aequitas Limited, Aequitas Trust and Fiduciary and e-Volve consultancy for a total €246,315.
Delia has repeatedly refused to clarify how much was paid to him on a monthly basis as part of the share sale agreement.
By December 2018, Delia said in his annual financial declarations to parliament that he did not have a penny to his name in the bank. The following year, the opposition leader again said he had no funds in the bank.
Delia did not declare having any cash holdings either.
Documents, also reviewed by Times of Malta, show Delia’s expenses in 2018 included €74,190 in repayments for bank loans with BOV, HSBC and Banif, a €9,689.65 “Zurich bill”, and €37,209 in school fees, a Jaguar car lease as well as other expenses.
In March 2018, his credit card and overdraft arrears with BOV, HSBC and Banif stood at €188,215. A review of bank account summaries for March, June and August 2018 show at least €40,099.67 was paid into overdraft and credit card accounts held by Delia.
This includes a deposit of at least €19,935 between June and August into an HSBC account whose €34,940 overdraft limit had been exceeded by €12,585.
An inquiry is under way into accusations that murder suspect Yorgen Fenech was sec-retly funnelling up to €20,000 a month to Delia in a bid to destroy MEP David Casa’s 2019 re-election bid.
In contrast with Delia, Casa had no qualms in placing Fenech in the spotlight over his ownership of 17 Black, a company that according to a leaked e-mail planned to pay up to €2 million to offshore firms owned by former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri and former Energy and Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi.
Delia lost a succession of confidence votes in his leadership after Times of Malta revealed in July how the Opposition leader had exchanged messages with Fenech after the November, 2018, 17 Black revelations.
The unanswered questions
As a starting point, in 2018 you were paying €6,182.53 monthly to HSBC, BOV and Banif for various loans. Over a year, the amount due to the banks was €74,190.
In 2018, your salary as Opposition leader was €44,782. That alone amounts to a shortfall of €29,408 between your income as opposition leader and your loan costs.
How was this loan shortfall funded? What additional sources of income did you have?
On March 12, 2018, you were advised via e-mail about a pending “Zurich bill” of €9,689.85. What was this bill for? Has it been paid, and if so, what was the source of funds?
There was also an outstanding invoice of €2,178 from Tristar Travel. Was this paid, and if so, using what funds?
That same month, you were also informed you owed a total of €54,182.17 on credit cards held at HSBC, Banif and BOV and €134,033.94 on overdrafts at those same banks.
By June of that same year, the credit card arrears stood at €46,704 and you were being urgently requested to deposit €12,585 after exceeding your €34,940 overdraft limit at HSBC bank.
This means that, at least, €7,477.20 was paid into the credit card accounts between March and June. Your BOV overdraft also saw payments of at least €7,798.55 between March and June.
Where did these funds come from?
Between June and August, at least €19,935 had been deposited into the HSBC overdraft account, as well as payments of at least €4,951.92 into your credit card and overdraft accounts.
What was the source of these deposits?
The payments that took place into these accounts between March, June and August amount to at least €40,099.67, bringing your funding shortfall for that year up to €81,375.52.
In September, a €5,897 payment was made to a notary, further raising the difference between your income and expenditure to €87,272.52.
Other expenses for that year include €21,897 in school fees, €7,548 repayments on a Jaguar car you leased, life and health insurance payments of €6,576 and car insurance repayments of €1,188. These figures raise your funding shortfall for 2018 to €111,794.85.
Furthermore, you also owed your former law firm €61,200 in office expenses.
Have these expenses been paid, and if so, how were they funded?