Galdes, secret deals and a public company in ruins

Minister Roderick Galdes was tasked with responsibility for Malita Investments, a publicly listed, financially sound company with a state majority shareholding.  Within a year, Malita plc practically went bankrupt.

Malita plc ran up millions in debts, €22 million of which was borrowed from the European Investment Bank, it’s chased by contractors for millions of euro in work they carried out but were never paid for,  several senior officials, including the chief executive officer, resigned, and its key housing project ground to a halt for lack of funds.

Galdes is accused by former Labour MEP and former Malita chairperson Marlene Mizzi of irregularly interfering in the public-listed company and of destroying Malita’s finances through “hobnobbing with contractors”.

The Times of Malta revealed that Galdes purchased a duplex penthouse with a rooftop jacuzzi, garage and its own airspace for the pathetic sum of €140,000 from Joseph Portelli in the same year that Galdes’ Housing Authority granted Portelli a multi-million-euro housing contract.

Galdes’ personal lawyer, former Labour candidate Rachel Tua, wrote a “cease and desist” letter accusing The Times of making inquiries into “matters that are in fact trivial”.

There’s nothing trivial about a minister interfering in and bankrupting a publicly listed company, attracting the scrutiny of the European Investment Bank. Or in trading in influence to acquire a luxury duplex penthouse well below market value. But Minister Galdes lives on a different planet.

Galdes protested his innocence.  He didn’t get any special deal from his friend Portelli. Everybody’s getting duplex penthouses with airspace, garage and rooftop jacuzzi for €140,000, he claimed, not just him.  He’d “reserved” the property in 2021, whatever that means.

But he only signed a promise of sale in 2024, the very year Portelli secured that multi-million-euro Housing Authority contract.  Galdes purchased the €140,000 property in January 2025.  Where did Galdes get that money?

According to his 2022 assets declaration, Galdes only earned €65,000 a year.  He already had an outstanding loan of €248,989.  He had €77,142 in bank deposits.  He’d already miraculously acquired his residence in Qormi, a house in Luqa, a Gozo property, a UK studio apartment, an office and land in Qormi and an unconverted Siggiewi house as well as a house and land in Sicily.

Galdes has served as parliamentary secretary or minister since 2013, and his only income has been his salary. Between 2013 and 2022, Galdes only earned around €550,000 before tax. In 2022, he already had a €166,947 mortgage and another €9,000 in personal loans. There’s no way Galdes could have afforded all those properties, at least not without winning the lottery or inheriting them.

But these are only “trivial matters”. So trivial that Galdes’ lawyer was desperate to keep the information about Galdes’ Portelli penthouse secret. Rachel Tua made all sorts of bizarre accusations.  She labelled The Times enquiries “an invasion of privacy”.  She accused reporters of “an intention to intervene in, or intrude upon, my clients’ private lives” and of “harassment and defamation”.

“These statements are not expressions of fair comment but rather false assertions intended to damage my clients’ reputation and livelihood,” Tua said. It turns out those false assertions are all true.

Galdes’ statement read “this is nothing more than an attempt to stop my work and hinder the political work I am doing with honesty and a sense of duty… I will carry on working with determination, dedication and without fear for Maltese and Gozitan families,” he added.

He got the Malita Board of Directors to issue a statement in his defence, where they “categorically refute” the allegations of ministerial interference, saying, “the Board acted independently at all times”. That Board is more like a Labour Party village committee than a board of directors of a listed company.

It includes Tania Brown, the former assistant to Edward Scicluna, who has been charged with fraud and misappropriation in the Vitals scandal.  It also includes GWU veteran Victor Carachi, who’s making thousands of euro off a supposedly non-profit arrangement at the GWU, running the government jobless scheme. Carachi refused to explain how administrative fees from the non-profit foundation rose to €1.2 million, and his director’s fees increased from €16,714 to €46,600.

Malita’s board even includes Miguel Borg, the former BOV chief risk officer, who was forced to resign after his involvement in the multi-million-euro bad loan to Steward Healthcare. He was given a golden handshake worth €500,000. He was then swiftly put on the taxpayer’s payroll as CEO of Malta Government Venture Capital Ltd with a salary of over €100,000.  A special clause was inserted into his contract that, should he be sacked, because of a change of minister or government, he would still retain an indefinite full-time job as senior consultant.

These people owe Labour the hundreds of thousands of euro they’ve been making. They’re the only ones defending Galdes and expecting the public to believe that “all Board decisions have been made solely in the best interests of the company and its shareholders”.

Now that Malita Investments Chair, Johan Farrugia, has resigned, Galdes replaced him with none other than Marvin Gaerty – a man who was under police bail while being investigated for trading in influence over his WhatsApp communications with Yorgen Fenech.

Gaerty travelled on a luxury trip to Las Vegas to watch an MMA fight with Christian Borg, a man accused of abduction and assault and who Gaerty, the former Tax Commissioner, was meant to have investigated over the €22 million accumulated losses at his Princess Holdings Ltd.

Borg failed to submit any accounts for that company for years. Gaerty was also implicated in the release of sensitive information about the tax affairs of former Opposition leader Bernard Grech to Prime Minister Robert Abela.  Gaerty refused to give the police access to his phone, citing the Income Tax Act.  He declined to answer questions about the information Robert Abela had requested. Police raided his home, car and Floriana office to collect evidence.

And this is the man Galdes picked to restore credibility to Malita plc.  The European Investment Bank and those poor Malita shareholders must be tearing their hair out. You couldn’t make this up. But for Galdes, these are just “trivial matters”.