Keith Schembri’s loss-making Kasco Holdings Ltd guaranteed €13 million of related companies’ loans

Note 24 in Kasco Holdings Ltd’s financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2014 (reproduced below) shows that loss-making Kasco Holdings Ltd, which itself carries around €6 million of debt to the banks alone, in 2013 stood as guarantor for up to a shocking €13 million the loans and overdrafts of related companies and related parties.

In 2014 that figure was €3 million. This does not mean that the loans to Kasco Holdings Ltd’s related companies shrank or were paid off to the tune of €9 million. What it does probably mean is that in 2014 the loans in great part shifted from bank/s which required guarantees to bank/s which are not so fussy where the Prime Minister’s chief of staff is concerned.

As guarantor of the bank debts of other (related) companies and parties, Kasco Holdings Ltd is ultimately responsible for payment if those companies default, which means that this amount of debt has to be tacked on to Kasco Holdings Ltd’s actual debt with the banks to give a true picture of the staggering scale of millions which the Prime Minister’s chief of staff OWES rather than owns.

This must be the first time in the history of Malta – probably the history of Europe, actually – where a prime minister has a chief of staff who owes the banks many millions.

No wonder HSBC – one of those banks – rushed to cover up for him. Can’t have this crook defaulting, can they.