BREAKING/Silvio Debono travelled abroad two weeks ago to buy a Maserati, and took the taxman with him

Published: March 7, 2017 at 11:25am

Corrupt operator Silvio Debono, who is now at the epicentre of a major scandal involving the government transfer of prime-site public land to a company in which he is the sole shareholder, travelled out of Malta on Monday, 20th February to purchase a Maserati car. He already has an Aston Martin.

With him, he took Ivan Portelli, who was appointed director of operations at the VAT Department by the incoming Labour government in 2013. Portelli held that position until last December, when he was moved to the office of the Commissioner for Revenue in Floriana, as director/administration – Customs, VAT and Inland Revenue.

Portelli, who was a police officer, was summarily dismissed from the force along with David Gatt, who was later put on trial for complicity in a bank heist, by Commissioner John Rizzo. Police working for the Secret Service, who had suspected high-level criminals under surveillance, were secretly filming these men going aboard a yacht when they realised that Portelli was among them.

Portelli told Commissioner Rizzo that he had gone there “for information”, but he had also been picked up speaking in familiar tones to individuals who were under police surveillance, in tapped telephone conversations.

Portelli and Gatt filed a Constitutional case, saying that Commissioner Rizzo had kicked them out of the force without a fair hearing or due process. They won the case some years later, on a technicality, and the Court ruled that they had to be reinstated in the force. Rizzo would not allow them back in, saying that they posed a danger to police investigations, so a place was found for Portelli elsewhere in the public service. Gatt had meanwhile become a lawyer, obtained a professional warrant, and was working in that field.

Last Saturday, when I spoke to Silvio Debono to ask him why he engaged the professional services of the deputy Opposition leader, rather than other lawyers who are specialised in the field, I also told him I knew that he had travelled a few days earlier to buy a Maserati and that he had taken Portelli with him. To do this, I had to break through a solid wall of shouting, threats and insults, but immediately I said that, Debono froze and fell silent, then said: “Dik biċċa tiegħi. Mhux affarik. Tindaħalx. Tindaħalx għidtlek.” He then began shouting, threatening and insulting me again.

I pointed out that far from being his private affairs, this is a grave matter of concern and a significant public-interest issue, and that it is the equivalent of a judge travelling abroad with somebody who is a defendant before him, or an assistant commissioner in the police force, taking a car-buying trip with somebody he is supposed to be investigating or may have investigated. At this stage he was shouting so loudly that I rang off, unable to ask Debono whether he had also paid for the taxman’s trip.

So this morning I contacted Debono’s PR and communications man, Lou Bondi, with the following text message:

I am contacting you in your role as Silvio Debono’s communications and PR man. On Monday, 20th February, your client travelled abroad with Ivan Portelli, director of administration for VAT and Customs in the Office of the Commissioner for Revenue, to purchase a Maserati car. When I spoke to your client last Saturday, he told me that it’s his business and not mine.

My question is: why did he take the taxman with him? Did he pay for Portelli’s trip? Please reply this morning. Thank you.

There has been no reply and my message was not even acknowledged in terms of the basic professional requirements for somebody who handles the media on behalf of a paying client.

Ivan Portelli is the bald man on the far left. Silvio Debono is at the centre, back row. The man between them is Jonathan Attard, one of Economy Minister Christian Cardona’s closest aides. The picture was taken at his wedding reception in 2013. The man standing in front of Portelli is Vince Micallef, a former policeman, now a lawyer, who is company secretary to DB San Gorg Property Ltd, the vehicle which Silvio Debono set up to acquire public land from the government.

A Maserati car similar to the one which Silvio Debono travelled abroad to acquire two weeks ago, accompanied by the taxman Ivan Portelli.