Soup Kitchen ‘philanthropist’ charged with money laundering

Aqra bil-Malti

An accountant who made headlines last year with his proposed donation of a multi-million-euro townhouse in Sliema’s prestigious George Borg Olivier Street to the Soup Kitchen Foundation has been charged with money laundering, tax evasion, false documents and a raft of other criminal charges.

Nigel Scerri, together with his wife Mikaela, owners of financial services firm Ennesse, based in Msida, pleaded not guilty to laundering some €1.5 million.

A request by their lawyer, Joe Giglio, not to impose a freezing order was dismissed, and the court is expected to determine the amount of the couple’s assets to be frozen in the coming days.

The probe about the couple and their millionaire lifestyle was prompted by the tax authorities.

A tax department accountant tasked with auditing the couple found that between 2016 and 2024, the Scerris’ managed to acquire some €12 million worth of property and had some 26 different accounts, some of them in foreign jurisdictions.

Also, a €1 million loan they took to finance some of their property acquisitions was repaid to the bank in less than a year.

According to the tax authorities, this was a red flag and prompted a whole investigation into the couple and their businesses.

Soup Kitchen Foundation donation

The proposal was controversial and Sliema residents opposed his donation of a prime real estate property to Fr Marcellino Micallef – the Founder of the Soup Kitchen Foundation – to turn it into a social project hosting some 15 youth abandoned by their families.

The residents had insisted that this was a scam by Scerri to be able to turn the place into a hotel.

They also claimed that the townhouse would also include a ‘soup kitchen’ in the middle of Sliema, something which was denied by both Scerri and Fr Marcellino.

The Soup Kitchen Founder had told The Shift that the townhouse was a philanthropic donation by Scerri to turn the house into a much-needed shelter for the homeless.

Still, the Sliema neighbours vehemently opposed the proposal, filing hundreds of objections to the Planning Authority.

This opposition led to Fr Marcellino, who had described the accountant as a philanthropist with a golden heart and a member of the management board of Valletta’s Soup Kitchen Foundation, withdrawing the project due to opposition.

Some weeks later, Scerri filed a new application on his same property, PA 04108/24, proposing internal and external alterations, extensions at roof and basement levels, and the sanctioning of removal of loose material at basement level at 50, George Borg Olivier Street in Sliema.

Scerri was, until a few weeks ago, also a member of the Board of the DIZZ Group owned by Diane Izzo. He resigned as soon as he learned of ongoing police investigations.