Gaffarena’s lawyer initiated the expropriation request immediately his disbarring was lifted

The Auditor-General’s report says clearly that the expropriation of Marco Gaffarena’s half-house in Valletta was initiated by his lawyer in July 2014.

The date is significant. Keith Bonnici, Gaffarena’s lawyer, was disbarred in November 2011 for professional malpractice. The period of disbarment, during which Bonnici was not permitted to work as a lawyer, was published in the Government Gazette: two and a half years, which means that it ended in May 2014.

Bonnici was unable to approach the government on his client’s behalf before then.

Bonnici was already a sole practitioner when he was banned from working as a lawyer. In a case unrelated to his disbarment, he was quietly asked to leave the law practice where he worked because of well-founded suspicions that he had been embezzling funds.

Keith Bonnici, Marco Gaffarena’s bent lawyer