A bank and a company this week won court cases to receive a total of almost €650,000 they were owed from More Supermarkets and its former boss Ryan Schembri, though other creditors are still chasing for their dues.
The court ordered Schembri and More Supermarkets to pay BNF Bank and foodstuffs importer Alf. Mizzi and Sons the money they were owed.
Schembri is separately facing criminal proceedings over money laundering and fraud. He pleads not guilty.
The businessman had vanished in 2014, leaving behind a trail of debts worth millions of euros. The ex-supermarket boss slipped out of Malta after loan sharks turned on him and started threatening him and his son. He is believed to have left Malta with around €40 million in debts.
He was eventually arrested in the UK and extradited to Malta last year to face charges, which are still pending.
In 2016, Darren Casha, who had taken over the sinking chain, claimed in a judicial protest that Schembri had fooled him into making the investment and that the accounts he had been shown were “mistaken and far from the truth”.
Slain lawyer Carmel Chircop was one of the ‘investors’ in the supermarket chain after he had personally entered into a contract with Schembri to loan him the sum of €750,000.
"Times of Malta is informed that the remaining civil cases by creditors against Schembri and More Supermarkets are in their final phases, with many of them awaiting judgment"
Appearing as debtors in the contract were Schembri’s business partner Etienne Cassar, as well as Adrian Agius who is facing criminal proceedings for allegedly commissioning Chircop’s murder. Agius’s brother Robert is separately charged with supplying the bomb used to assassinate journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2017.
BNF Bank’s case was originally filed in 2015, when Schembri was still missing and creditors began chasing their monies.
The bank originally told the court it was owed almost €1.4 million, representing €858,000 granted through a business loan and just over €530,000 in an overdraft facility. However, throughout the proceedings, the bank had received sums to settle some of the monies due which went down to €393,209.
Mr Justice Christian Falzon Scerri upheld the bank’s request and ordered More Supermarkets (Ħamrun) Limited, Ryan Schembri, Angie Schembri, Etienne Cassar, Nathalie Carmen Cassar, Cassar & Schembri (Marketing) Limited, Panelix Supplies Limited, Imora Holdings Limited, Alexander Polidano, Adrian Agius, K Consult Limited, Christian Delia and Kurt Camilleri to pay the outstanding dues.
In a separate case, the appeals court confirmed a judgment in which More Supermarkets (Ħamrun) Limited, Ryan Schembri, Darren Casha and others were ordered to pay Alf. Mizzi and Sons Limited €250,600 it was due as payment for foodstuffs delivered to all More Supermarkets outlets before the chain went bust.
Times of Malta is informed that the remaining civil cases by creditors against Schembri and More Supermarkets are in their final phases, with many of them awaiting judgment.