Taxpayers set to foot the bill for more debt left behind by Streamcast

The Court has ordered Streamcast to pay Enemalta more than €150,000 for unpaid works and electricity bills, although it will probably be taxpayers who will have to foot the bill as the ‘investors’ behind the failed data project cannot be traced.

This is the second ruling in favour of Enemalta after the failed project, that was meant to generate millions in investment, instead left a trail of debt behind.

Streamcast was lauded in 2018 as ‘a major international company’ that would invest €75 million in the launch of an international data centre in Malta. It got the backing of the government, with former Minister Konrad Mizzi even turning up in Mumbai, India, and attending a press conference by Streamcast.

According to the latest lawsuit, Enemalta was engaged by Streamcast to provide special infrastructure at Streamcast’s rented premises (also from Enemalta) supposedly to be ‘used’ as a data centre. The infrastructure together with related electricity bills cost the state electricity provider some €150,000.

The latest court order follows other and larger outstanding bills which Streamcast left behind.

Last February, The Shift reported that Enemalta had filed a lawsuit against the company claiming over €300,000 in rent arrears and other costs while Melita, a private company, is owed another €300,000 for the provision of internet services. Streamcast also defaulted on a promise of sale agreement for a property valued at €7 million.

In total, Enemalta claims that it spent over €500,000 in order to set up Streamcast’s data centre (including rent) and supply it with electricity and internet. However, despite various invoices, calls and legal letters for payment, Enemalta never received a cent from Streamcast and had to resort to the courts.

Worse, it transpired from Court filings that Streamcast representatives effectively absconded from the island leaving the rented equipment running unsupervised. It was only late last year, when an overheating alarm went off at Marsa, that Enemalta realised that there was no one left here and that it should, both physically and metaphorically, pull the plug on the whole thing.

The problem is that while the Court has now ordered Streamcast to pay up its dues, no one really knows who will be forking out the money as none of the company directors can be found and it is not clear what assets, if any, remain in Malta.

This will mean that Enemalta will eventually have to write off these unpaid bills as bad debts, which will have to be covered by its own clients and main shareholder – taxpayers.

A due diligence report commissioned by Malta Enterprise had warned about Harshawardhan (known as ‘Harsh’) Sabale, the man behind the failed Streamcast investment, according to a leaked report seen by The Shift. Yet he was still offered the lucrative deal.

Enticed towards Malta by disgraced Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi, Streamcast was launched in a choreographed ceremony presided by former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat. It was presented to the public as an example of how Enemalta got “turned around” with the old disused power station in Marsa, being transformed into a state-of-the-art “tech hub”.

Two months after Energy Minister Joe Mizzi purportedly visited Streamcast’s data centres in India, Streamcast laid the foundation stone for its first data centre in India.

However, as soon as the cameras turned, everything fizzled out and the promised €75 million investment was transformed into a mountain of debt.

An investigation by The Shift stripped the Streamcast deal of the hype and showed individuals with a dodgy track record who came from nowhere, without a data centre, infrastructure, funds, a track record or even a proper website.

Yet they were still offered a lucrative deal in yet another of Mizzi’s projects in which taxpayers got the short end of the stick, as happened with other controversial deals involving the Electrogas power station and the sale of three public hospitals for just €1.

The Shift had also uncovered how Nexia BT – the closest audit firm to the OPM – had invested in Streamcast (through another company) before its operations were sold to third parties, presumably for a neat profit.

Nexia BT was the same company that opened secret Panama companies for Mizzi and Muscat’s closest associate, Keith Schembri.

                           

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7 Comments
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Lino Cuomo
Lino Cuomo
3 years ago

Anything KM was involved in stinks.
With all the mess he left behind one expects that he should spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Henry s Pace
Henry s Pace
3 years ago

‘ The Court has ordered Streamcast to pay Enemalta more than €150,000 If the directors of Streamcast could bot be traced ‘
How came that Enemalta would be receiving this amount ?

alfred zammit
alfred zammit
3 years ago

dirt,dirt dirt and the conman is still free and in our parliament!

MR ADRIAN GOUDER
MR ADRIAN GOUDER
3 years ago

Yes, yet another of the Mizzi Muscat Schembri trio fraudulent investments in the name of the Maltese people – to line their own pockets. By now we must have a great reputation as a country of suckers.

saviour mamo
saviour mamo
3 years ago

Former Minister Konrad Mizzi and Former Energy Minister Joe Mizzi should come clean with their involvement with Streamcast.

carlo
3 years ago

Nikanta kif il-poplu Malti joqghid ghal dawn l-iskandli kollha. Fejn hu d-dekor tal-poplu – FIL-FLUS BISS?

Matthew Zammit
Matthew Zammit
3 years ago

Well done to The Shift News for once again having to be the only media house to give us information like this! What are the other media houses doing?!

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