Portelli bought St Paul’s Bay penthouse and garage in shell form for €300,000

Searches by three notaries yesterday and today in Identity Malta’s online public registry records, in the names of taxman Ivan Portelli and his wife Samantha Portelli Warne, have repeatedly failed to pull up any details of property transfers involving their names.

But Frank Xuereb of Xuereb Installations Ltd has just phoned to give me details of the sale of the penthouse flat and a garage at Water’s Edge Apartments in St Paul’s Bay. He sold the penthouse and a garage to Portelli and Portelli Warne for €300,000 in February 2014: €280,000 for the penthouse in shell form and €20,000 for the garage. He was paid in full – the couple, who were 46 at the time, having obtained a bank loan for almost the full amount.

Separately, I obtained the information that they moved in around 18 months later, having spent the intervening period finishing the penthouse with the assistance of an interior designer, Andrew Alexander Azzopardi, while continuing to live at their Mosta home.

Ivan Portelli has refused to take questions about the matter, telling me earlier today: “No comment.”

Ivan Portelli and the Mercedes SLK he travelled to the UK to buy last summer.