Two other members of the Michael Farrugia/Robert Musumeci/Consuelo Herrera/Ellul/Pullicino Orlando cabal put on the state payroll

Claudia Cuschieri (centre) with Joseph Muscat during the general election campaign

Andy Ellul, Claudia Cuschieri and Carmen Ciantar who at the time was living with Jeffrey Pullicino (Orlando) but has since left him after a few months of marriage.

Andy Ellul (centre) with Vince MIcallef (left) at a Labour Party mass meeting.

L to R: Sharon Ellul Bonici, Robert Musumeci, Andy Ellul and Claudia Cuschieri

Andy Ellul with his sister Sharon and Jeffrey Pullicino (Orlando).

Andy Ellul and Claudia Cuschieri, at a government reception to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Malta’s EU membership which their party campaigned against.

Andy Ellul, second from right at rear, in Muscat’s entourage during the election campaign

The Ellul siblings – John, Andy and Sharon – and Vince Micallef celebrate the Labour victory at Jeffrey Pullicino (Orlando)’s home. Andy Ellul and Vince MIcallef are second and third from right, near Pullicino (Orlando).

Michael Farrugia celebrating the Labour victory at Medasia in Gzira with Jeffrey Pullicino (Orlando)

Michael Farrugia and his girlfriend Amanda Mifsud, who has been made a director at Identity Malta, at the wedding of Jeffrey Pullicino (Orlando) to Carmen Ciantar. Mifsud was Ciantar’s maid of honour.

Magistrate Consuelo Herrera and Robert Musumeci eating lunch with Minister Michael Farrugia at Ta’ Karolina in Xlendi

Minister Michael Farrugia and Amanda Mifsud, director at Identity Malta, at supper with Magistrate Consuelo Herrera and Robert Musumeci, consultant at the Office of the Prime Minister

Andy Ellul, a policeman turned sleazy criminal lawyer and Labour Party insider who operates in partnership with Vince Micallef, another policeman turned sleazy criminal lawyer and Labour Party insider, has been put on the state payroll in a ‘position of trust’ at Michael Farrugia’s Ministry for the Family and Social Policy.

His girlfriend Claudia Cuschieri, who is also the mother of his young child, was given a ‘position of trust’ in Michael Farrugia’s ministry last year: as his communications coordinator. Cuschieri was put on the state payroll immediately the Labour Party got into government in 2013 – with a job at the Office of the Prime Minister, but then transferred to more comfortable home turf with her friend Michael Farrugia, with whom she and Andy Ellul socialise on weekends. She had moved to the Office of the Prime Minister, like so many others, from her job as a reporter for the Labour Party’s television station, (Super) One.

Ellul is one of failed Labour EP candidate Sharon Ellul Bonici’s brothers. Another of her brothers, John C. Ellul, had flown to Singapore with Magistrate Consuelo Herrera around five years ago, in the last few weeks before his early retirement from the Police Forensic Unit, on an “investigation”.

The Ellul brothers, Vince Micallef, Magistrate Consuelo Herrera, her boyfriend Robert Musumeci, Science Council executive chairman Jeffrey Pullicino (Orlando) and Minister Michael Farrugia have operated and networked as a tight cabal for the last few years. Pullicino (Orlando) was in league with them even when he sat on the government benches in parliament as a Nationalist and later ‘independent’ MP. Until her husband began his adulterous affair with Lara Boffa, who he put on the state payroll at the Science Council, the cabal also included Carmen Ciantar. Ciantar was also put on the state payroll, as CEO at the state utilities billing agency, ARMS Ltd.

Andy Ellul and Vince Micallef have stayed below the radar largely because even the closest political observers have not taken note of their network or their links and operations. They are, however, a key component of the cabal surrounding Minister Farrugia and have been since the days he was in Opposition.

Their network is not professional or even political in the strict sense of the word, but social. They have partied together for the last few years and socialise together constantly and relentlessly.

The more obvious members of this cabal who have been put on the state payroll since March 2013 are Robert Musumeci (consultant at the Office of the Prime Minister), Andy Ellul (unspecified position of trust with Minister Michael Farrugia), his girlfriend Claudia Cuschieri (communications coordinator with Minister Michael Farrugia), Michael Farrugia’s girlfriend Amanda Mifsud (director at Identity Malta), Jeffrey Pullicino ‘Orlando’ (executive chairman of the Malta Council for Science and Technology), his girlfriend Lara Boffa (first personal assistant to her boss/boyfriend, then promoted to projects coordinator at the MCST), and Pullicino ‘Orlando’s’ wife Carmen Ciantar (CEO of ARMS Ltd). There are more, and certainly, questions need to be asked about Vince Micallef.