Central Bank deputy governor denies plans to put secret girlfriend on bank payroll as his PA

UPDATE AT 9am: Since the story went up last night, this website has been informed that the BMW car in which the Central Bank deputy governor’s ‘secret’ girlfriend waited for him at the airport, and in which she drove off with him after their weekend away (see photographs below) is leased by the Central Bank.

Central Bank deputy governor Alfred Mifsud’s two-decade relationship with the mother of his two younger children broke down permanently last March after she received – across a restaurant table – a text message he intended to send to his secret girlfriend, Sharon Mifsud.

The message said: Good nite. I ll text you late be4 I sleep like yesterday xxxxxx

Anna Zelbst told this website: “We were at a restaurant close to our flat on a Friday night. He was fiddling with his phone and I asked him to stop. He told me that he was just sending an email to the chairman of something or other.

“So I got my own phone out of my bag to message a friend and it suddenly pinged with a message from Alfred. Except that it wasn’t meant for me. It was meant for the girlfriend he had been telling me for ages that he doesn’t have.

“I stared at the screen in shock, then looked at him and said: ‘Int taf x’għamilt hawn?’ (Do you know what you’ve done here?)’ He turned white as a sheet, grabbed my hands and said: ‘Aħfirli, aħfirli’ (Forgive me, forgive me). By now the whole restaurant was looking at us, so I just got up and left.

“I went to the garage, got into my car and drove around for ages in the dark, crying, angry at myself for having put up with his constant, compulsive lying and denials. When I finally got back to the flat I found him in bed in his pyjamas, cool as a cucumber, as though nothing had happened. I went wild, and threw him out there and then, still wearing his pyjamas. I had finally had much more than I could take. He started living in a converted part of his office building.

“At this point I discovered that on New Year’s Day he had sent another message intended for his girlfriend to our teenage daughter, whose name begins with Sh too. The message said: Good nite qalbi xxx quietly at home. MU. Tick off another day.

“He then hurriedly sent her another message saying that he had intended to send it to her half-brother, who is a grown man to whom he would never send messages with lots of kisses or ‘MU’ (miss you). Our daughter did not tell me about it at the time because I had been in hospital with severe bronchitis and she didn’t want to add to the problems. But she told me after he made the same mistake with me.”

Mrs Zelbst told this website that she had suspected for years that Mifsud had been leading a double life with Sharon Mifsud, a woman now in her mid 40s who is an employee at Allcare Insurance Brokers, one of Mifsud’s businesses. “But when I confronted him with my concerns, he told me that I was being irrational, suspicious, imagining things or crazy. He is such a convincing liar that he wore me down and I began to believe that I really was crazy and imagining things. Then I discovered that I wasn’t, and that this was probably the reason he never allowed me to go to his office. This has been going on for many years. All this cheating and lying with a straight face is a vice and it can only get worse.”

Former employees of Allcare Insurance Brokers told this website that it was an “open secret” at the office that Sharon Mifsud and Alfred Mifsud were involved in an illicit relationship. “When she went into his room the door was always closed and we had instructions not to disturb them,” one former employee said. “She would do things like peel an orange for him, which we thought was ridiculous. The situation was awkward and embarrassing. We all knew what was going on but we weren’t supposed to know.”

Ms Mifsud, who was previously married, was in a relationship with another man – her official partner of around five years – until a few weeks ago, and so had every incentive to keep the relationship secret too. But when Allcare Insurance Brokers was sold to the management a couple of months ago and she was put on notice, Ms Mifsud told close associates that she would be joining the Central Bank.

Even though he is officially single, Alfred Mifsud has been at great pains to carry on concealing his relationship with Ms Mifsud. They spent the weekend of 3rd to 5th June together in Vienna, but sat separately on the return flight – he in Club Class and she in Economy Class – and also emerged separately from the arrivals gate and made their way to their car separately.

This website has received a copy of Ms Mifsud’s passenger information in which she lists Alfred Mifsud as her emergency contact number, and also a set of photographs taken at the airport on the night of Sunday, 5th June. They were not taken by Mrs Zelbst or anyone connected with her, and she had no idea of their existence until I told her about them when she first contacted me with her story. At that point they were already in my possession.

The photographs show Sharon Mifsud coming out of the Arrivals gate wheeling one small bag, then walking alone right across the airport car-park to the area reserved for rented cars, on the far side. She got into the passenger seat of a rental BMW, and this revealed that she was expecting somebody else to get into the driver’s seat.

The person who took the photographs told this website that Ms Mifsud waited there alone in the dark in the car for almost half an hour. Then Alfred Mifsud turned up, got into the driver’s seat, and they drove off.

I rang Alfred Mifsud to explain that I had received these photographs and the sequence of actions they show, and to ask him why he is still employing such subterfuge even though he and Ms Mifsud are both now officially single. He denied trying to keep the relationship secret or that he used any subterfuge at the airport.

For the purposes of clarity, I am going to reproduce our actual telephone conversation from the point after I described the photographs to him.

“What was the purpose of your stay in Vienna – was it business or a holiday?”

“I was there for business but then extended my stay over the weekend and asked her to join me from Friday.”

“Why did you sit separately on the return flight, you in Club and she in Economy?”

“My ticket was booked for me for work purposes.”

“Why did Ms Mifsud leave Arrivals before you did?”

“She only had hand luggage. I had to wait for my suitcase.”

“I see. Rather than spending half an hour waiting with you for your bags near the carousel, or at the coffee bar just outside the Arrivals gate, she preferred to cross the entire length of the dark and deserted car-park and sit alone in the car, in the dark, for half an hour. I’m trying to see how this makes sense. Ms Mifsud is one of your employees at Allcare Insurance Brokers, right?”

“Well, employee – I was a shareholder in AIB but it’s now been sold to management. Sharon is staying on for a little while more to tie up some loose ends.”

“What will she do for work then? I’m told that you are looking to find her a position at the Central Bank.”

“No, I’m not. It’s up to her what she does. Maybe you could ring her and ask her.”

“If you’re not looking to find her a job, why are you keeping your relationship covert?”

“I’m not. She came out ahead of me because she only had hand luggage.”

Sharon Mifsud – ‘secret’ girlfriend of the deputy governor of the Central Bank of Malta, Alfred Mifsud

Alfred Mifsud, deputy governor of the Central Bank of Malta, with then Opposition leader Joseph Muscat during a Labour Party general election campaign event in 2013.