Mutassim Gaddafi, Joe Sammut and a party in St Barts
Labour Party activist and money-man Joe Sammut: won't say whether Gaddafi is NOT his client
Last year, Beyonce was paid a reported $2 million to perform at a New Year’s Eve Party at Nikki Beach in the Caribbean resort St Barts.
The party was held for Muammar Gaddafi’s bachelor son Mutassim Billah, who denied paying for it. The New York Post reported (6 February) sources as saying that $185,000 were wired to Nikki Beach as payment for the party by “Malta-based financier Joseph Sammut”.
I had missed the story at the time, but it has now resurfaced.
I thought this could only be the accountant Joe Sammut (not the Labour MP, let’s be clear on that), former Central Bank man, former Labour Party candidate and Labour Party treasurer in 1993 and 1994, who used to write a financial advice column for L-Orizzont.
The first port of call was his website, www.joesammut.eu, which gave me his mobile telephone number and told me that he “maintains most of his professional and business contacts in Libya”, and that he works through the weekend except Saturday morning for that reason (Sunday is a work-day in Libya).
Next, I searched the internet to see whether he had issued a denial or clarification of that story, but I couldn’t find anything. So I rang him for his version and to check whether he had responded to that story at the time.
I will report the conversation verbatim, translated from Maltese, leaving out the introduction and standard pleasantries, to ensure that there there is no misunderstanding or misinterpretation.
————
DCG: In February last year, The New York Post ran a story quoting sources which said that you had wired $185,000 from Malta to Nikki Beach in St Barts to pay for a party thrown by Mutassim Gaddafi.
JS: Yes, yes.
DCG: So you are aware of which story I mean?
JS: Yes, yes.
DCG: Had you issued a denial or clarificaton at the time? I’d like to run the story, but I need to know first whether you had issued some statement.
JS: I can’t speak because of professional secrecy.
DCG: By that, I take it to mean that you did wire the money.
JS: As I have told you already, I cannot say anything because of professional secrecy.
DCG: All right, I’ll ask you a more specific question. Did you wire that money?
JS: I can’t speak because of professional secrecy.
DCG: That suggests that the Gaddafi family are your clients. Are the Gaddafi family your clients?
JS: Look, you can ask me all the questions you want, but as I said, I can’t speak because of professional secrecy, no matter how much you push me to do so.
DCG: Mr Sammut, you are not talking to an idiot. You are talking to somebody who knows what professional secrecy is. It covers your clients, but it does not cover people who are not your clients. If the Gaddafi family are not your clients and if you did not wire money to St Barts on their behalf, then you are perfectly free to say so. But if they are your clients then yes, you are not free to speak, whether you wired the money or not. I am taking your refusal to speak about dealings that have to do with the Gaddafi family as tacit confirmation that they are indeed your clients.
JS: Whatever you say, I am not going to say anything because of professional secrecy.
DCG: As I said, that can only mean that the Gaddafi family are your clients.
JS: I can’t speak because of….
DCG: Professional secrecy prevents you from saying who your clients are. It does not prevent you from saying that the Gaddafis are not your clients if they are not your clients. I am going to run this story.
JS: You can do so, but obviously there are all the consequences.
DCG: What consequences, and for whom? I will report our conversation without making inferences. There is no need for inferences or interpretation because it is straightforward.
————
And then we exchanged goodbyes and I sat down to write this.
In line with UN-imposed sanctions, Malta is obliged to freeze any Gaddafi family assets held within its territory. I have no idea how this would work if some of those assets are held by financial advisors, lawyers and accountants who don’t volunteer the information.
UN-mandated sanctions supersede ethical rules on professional secrecy, so if questioned by sanction-enforcers, Joe Sammut cannot respond as he did to me. He will have to give full disclosure as to whether he acts for them or not and, if he does act for them, he will have to give details of what he holds in their name and where it is.
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This is excellent journalism. It beats any recent reports in Maltese newspapers.
Daphne, yesterday on timesofmalta.com I read a report that a Maltese public notary was arrested somewhere in Spain. His name now escapes me. Apparently, he was apprehended after local police reported that he was wanted for fraud and other issues.
When I looked again this report had disappeared. It did not appear in the print version either, as far as I can tell. I thought this was very strange. Did you notice this yourself? How does one query this? Thank you.
It is still online, if this is what you are talking about:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110228/local/maltese-notary-arrested-in-spain
Sorry you missed the printed story in The Times – It was all there for all to read, name and all
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100803/local/repatriation-of-immigrants-libya-confirms-governments-version-of-events-muscat
I guess this is the Mosta ex-CBM employee, L-Orizzont contributor. I used to see him often on Tripoli flights.
His CV’s a gem.
“Married in 1985 to Anna nee Casha, the Sammuts have two adorable daughters, Isabelle (born 1989) and Elaine (born 1993). They try to live happily and quietly and to raise their daughters in the way they were brought up. That is, correct and highly educated.” http://www.joesammut.eu
It’s a cross beween a CV, biography and hagiography.
I’m assuming that Mr. Sammut did not wire $185,000 of his own money, but on behalf of somebody else.
Min jaf x’tahwid. I trust that we are not going to hear next that Gaddafi bankrolled the Labour Party, at least in part.
You mean you hope Gaddafi didn’t bankroll the Labour Party.
I trust that, if he did, we would hear of it – from the Labour Party itself.
What better way to show that it really is turning over a new leaf?
At long last some real investigative journalism from a Maltese journalist.
http://archive.maltatoday.com.mt/2001/1111/people.html
http://www.maltarightnow.com/?module=news&at=Il-mozzjoni+ta'+ringrazzjament+
lil+Eddie+Fenech+Adami+ni%26%23380%3Blet+velenu+g%26%23295%3Bal-Laburisti&t=
a&aid=99811343&cid=19
Couch potatoes are bored – from timesofmalta.com
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110301/local/libyans-take-their-protest-to-ta-giorni-school
J.Bezzina
Thanks to these Libyans we had something to watch on TV. However now we’re bored with same news and these protests in our country. Please go to where you came from to protest and fight your dictator and close this mess once and for all.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Showbiz-News/Singer-Nelly-Furtado-Vows-To-Donate-The-1m-She-Was-Paid-To-Entertain-The-Gaddafi-Family-In-2007/Article/201103115943402?lpos=Showbiz_News_Second_Home_Page_Article_Teaser_Region_2&lid=ARTICLE_15943402_Singer_Nelly_Furtado_Vows_To_Donate_The_%241m_She_Was_Paid_To_Entertain_The_Gaddafi_Family_In_2007
http://www.rihannasucks.blogspot.com/
Mystery of who paid Beyonce deepens
Last Updated: 8:30 AM, March 1, 2010
Posted: 12:22 AM, February 6, 2010
The mystery of who paid Beyoncé a reported $2 million to perform at a New Year’s party at Nikki Beach in St. Barts deepens. The Libyan leader’s bachelor son, Mutassim Billah Khadafy, photographed with his hair slicked back at the party, denies bankrolling the event. While the benefactor who paid Beyoncé remains secret, sources say a $185,000 payment for the bash, attended by Jay-Z, Jon Bon Jovi and Usher, was wired to Nikki Beach by Malta-based financier Joseph Sammut. Meanwhile, Mutassim is annoyed at Europeans who keep confusing him with his violent brother, Hannibal, who was not at the party.
You forgot to include in his CV working as a part timer at TVM during the golden years.
Hemm xi ritratt tieghu dan halli inkunu nafu min hu?
[Daphne – Tellajtlek wiehed minflok ta’ Beyonce. Now don’t come back and complain.]
Beyoncé has grown a moustache and gone bald. Is there something we haven’t been told.
[Daphne – Somebody asked for a picture of Joe Sammut. I knew there would be complaints.]
Is this not ironic – the Labour Party’s close relationship with the Gaddafi mob may cost it the election.
Not if people reason that the Gaddafi mob are no longer there, so there is no risk of the Labour mob liaising with them.
You know how perverse Maltese reasoning can be sometimes.
They might recruit them as candidates.
Daphne, you did it again! Told you many years ago that the rock doesn’t deserve you. The NYT does.
Did you ask Joe Sammut whether he went to the party to see for himself the famed Beyonce Booty Shake?
We would appreciate if you were to post a picture of yourself every now and the. Your last b&w one of a couple of weeks ago was a very fresh example. It would lessen some of the tedium of evey day life considerably
Reading this excerpt from his website, “A very interesting aspect of our professional attitude is that clients can always contact or meet Joe, anytime and anywhere. He is available 24/7 and is available for travel, out calls and in calls”, I couldn’t help thinking of another type of website…
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