Sacked policeman who is VAT/Customs/Inland Revenue director bought large Mercedes car and St Paul’s Bay penthouse in the space of a few months

Ivan Portelli, who was appointed director of operations at the VAT Department by the incoming Labour government in 2013, and who last December was appointed director/administration for VAT, Customs and Inland Revenue, last summer travelled to the United Kingdom to buy a large Mercedes car which he and his son then drove down to Malta.

Portelli, a civil servant on a Grade 4 salary, had only a few months earlier bought a penthouse flat overlooking the sea at St Paul’s Bay, with a rooftop pool. He acquired it without first selling his Mosta home.

This website reported earlier today that two weeks ago, Portelli travelled out of Malta with Silvio Debono, the corrupt operator at the epicentre of the St George’s Bay land deal scandal, to buy a Maserati for Debono, who is under investigation by Malta’s tax authorities after his company, Hotel San Antonio Ltd, cropped up in the Panama Papers as having a company in the British Virgin Islands administered by Mossack Fonseca.

Ivan Portelli, sacked from the police force by Commissioner John Rizzo for associating with suspected criminals, appointed director of operations at the VAT Department in 2013, and now director/administration for VAT, Customs and Inland Revenue – with the car he bought last July

The view from the penthouse, with rooftop pool, which Ivan Portelli acquired only a few months before buying the Mercedes car

Portelli on his penthouse terrace