Malta’s cabinet of government: a gold-digger’s paradise
I have 23 houses, villas, flats, offices and garages but the rent I make from them wouldn’t pay the grocery bill and off my minister’s salary I have to pay back a loan of almost a million euros.
Codruta married me for my mind and my ability to make her laugh
I got rich by marrying the one Ukrainian I dated who isn’t a pole-dancer – that’s what I want you to believe, anyway.
Sai might have married me for my looks and my European passport, but then she found a way of gold-digging while getting rid of me
The Sunday Times is running a story on cabinet ministers and their self-declared income and assets. Well, it’s a laugh and a half in some cases which I have highlighted here.
It’s fascinating, isn’t it, how they have seen an increase in income for the year in which they became ministers over the previous year in which they were not ministers.
Chris Cardona, Minister for the Economy, is the most fascinating of all. To justify how he went from an income of Eur23,000, monetary assets of Eur60,000 and three pieces of real estate in 2012, when he was an ordinary Opposition backbencher, to an income of Eur52,000 (his minister’s salary), monetary assets of Eur429,000 and seven pieces of real estate in 2013, when he was a government minister, he said that it isn’t his but his wife’s
His wife is Ukrainian, he said (we know that) and they married at the start of 2013. She brought to the marr4iage Eur357,000 in bank deposits “mostly in dollars and Ukrainian hyrvnias” and also had “various properties in Kiev and an apartment in Sofia, Bulgaria”.
Who is he kidding. If all that money and real estate belonged to the woman he married before they married, then he has no part of them because they are not part of the marital ‘community of acquisition’. They are 100% hers and he should not have declared them. The rule or custom about ministers declaring their spouse’s income and acquisitions applies only if they are married under the ‘community of acquisition’ regime, and then only because half of whatever the spouse earns or acquires belongs to the minister at law and is jointly owned.
There have been a couple of ministers in the past – PN ones, it goes without saying – who have conscientiously listed their wife’s personaly property of which they have no share, and listed it in detail. But they went over and above the call of duty. What their wife owned before marriage or inherited after marriage has nothing to do with them.
I don’t believe Chris Cardona, though I would very much like to do so because it would make a refreshing change to have a male gold-digger actually in the cabinet and not just female ones married or living with those who are in the cabinet.
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Ja hallelin u nies zibel
Zibel int u partit tieghek
Laburist imwerwer fil-website ta’ Daphne
Zibel int u min ghandek ya mahruqin bhallsahara
Ara x’hawn tal-Laburisti jsegwu lil Daphne…mwerwrin
Does this mean that people who are on record as saying that they have put together a road map to govern the country cannot fill in a simple tax form? Most of them have staff at their disposal and I presume they own a phone but they need pointers as to why/how their declarations do not add up?
Aren’t we in excellent hands?
Mizzi has no duty to declare the income of his ex-wife.
[Daphne – That’s exactly what I thought, that if they are separated, he is under no obligation to declare her income. But then he should answer a simple question on whether they are separated or not.]
Can she get married allowance in that case?
She can’t – or shouldn’t – even if she’s still married to him because 1) he isn’t dependent on her and 2) he’s not living with her in China.
Who would bell the cat?
Interesting how Chris Cardona bought 4 properties between 2012 and 2013 and in the same period increased his cash by €370k.
I should try investing in lap-dancing clubs. It might pay off handsomely and rapidly, like it has done for some others.
I wish to know which bank was stupid enough to give a loan of almost a million euros to a man with an income of €45,000 as there’s no way he can ever repay it. Unless he’s going to live for 300 years or more.
If Chris Cardona earned €52,000 in 2013, how did he repay €87,000 on his loan?
[Daphne – He’ll probably tell you that his Ukrainian wife did it.]
That’s a lot of dancing
And these people are supposed to oversee the Finance Minister in cabinet?
Can Mr Cardona please explain how his income increased by a mere €29,000 yet his loan decreased by €87,000 and monetary assets increased by an astonishing €369,000? Fenomenali tassew! Wouldn’t such figures call for an investigation of how these ‘assets’ were acquired?
Didn’t Manwel Mallia say that the half a million in cash was from a sale or property?
Here the number of properties is the same. So if he is to be believed (hmmm) then he must have sole the property before. It still doesn’t make sense that he would have kept that amount of cash at home for over a year if it was legitimate.
The financial wizard, if you ask me, is Anton Refalo.
How on earth can anybody service a loan that is eight times his income?
How can anyone with an income of 45000 euros come to own 24 properties?
Warren Buffet ta’ Ghawdex.
Corruption personified.
Qazziztuna.
Then they expect a person in Malta to live on Euro 500/ 600 or 700 a month. They are also against raising the minimum wage, these party of the workers.
They know also that the foreigners working in restaurants, bars and hotels are being paid peanuts with bad conditions and have the cheek to say that the Maltese do not want to work in these jobs.
The Maltese will not work under the conditions and rate of pay these foreigners (mostly from East Europe and Serbians – who need the working permit as they are not in the E.U. ). They are turning a blind eye, these socialists – the Pro ( only ) Business party.
What would you expect when most of them are lawyers who know every legal loophole in the book.
How can Chris Cardona and Anon Refalo have such phenomenal loans when on such “meagre” income? They must be bosom buddies with their bank managers. U halluna.
Biex tigi hawn tghajjar mahruqin irid ikun ilek titqalleb fid-dqiq bhal vopa, fil forn, Ghax kieku ma jkunx hekk kif taf kif ikunu il mahruqin ? L-ghazla l-ohra hi li tkun mahruq aktar minn kulhadd biex tkun taf kif tkun mahruq. Ahna ilna 18 il xahar nidhqu bit-tined tal kummiedja, bil patafjun ta dawk li jilhqu illum u jirrizenjaw l-ghada (dawk mahruqin mela ahna), dawk li jsibu il flus taht is-saqqu, bil-pozi u tkemmix il wicc ta Joseph, u bil biki ta dawk li ma misshomx bicca mill kejk. U la semmejna il kejk, daqs kemm ma dahqniex meta gie ministru jghid lill kok kif jaghmel il marzipan, il pasta rjala bil Malti misluf.
If the Minister for Gozo is not renting any of his properties, he really needs a good lesson in financial and asset management.
Fascinating. Chris Cardona has a sugar mummy.