Labour’s right kind of investment

On 6 April 2015, with all pomp and circumstance, disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat laid the foundation stone of what was meant to be the €120 million Metropolis project in Gżira.

Muscat kept his hand symbolically on the chains that lifted that heavy foundation stone inscribed with his name while the Libyan businessman behind the project, Jalal Husni Bey, delivered a speech.

Muscat bragged that Malta was attracting “the right kind of investment”. He insisted the €120 million project would “create around 400 jobs” and would “help regenerate the Gżira area and transform it into a business hub”. He promised it would be completed within three years.

On 8 April 2015, heavy machinery was back in Gżira – not to start working on the 33-storey high-rise which would include restaurants, luxury apartments, offices, 500 parking spaces, a communal outdoor swimming pool and a helipad, but to remove the foundation stone Muscat laid just 48 hours earlier. That was a harbinger of what was to come.

Eleven years later, Muscat’s hype and empty promises remained Gżira’s “big hole”. The mega development and the the €120 million investment Muscat bragged about on the eve of the 2015 local council elections remain abandoned.

According to press reports, the project was left completely dormant because financing was not secured.

Now, on the eve of general elections, the “big hole” in Gżira was once more revived.

A fresh planning application was submitted – and the planned project is even grander than the one Muscat promised. The new vision includes a single high-rise building incorporating a hotel, as well as residential and commercial units, rising to 34 floors. Husni Bey is still involved.

In 2015, Husni Bey bragged that his project “would lead the market”.

“High-rise projects usually scare a lot of people because they are not used to them. We have to recognise that they are a must,” Husni Bey told the nation, before turning to Muscat to sing his praises: “Those calling the shots have been very helpful.”

Why was the prime minister promoting a project that was dead in the water? Why did Muscat hype up that project and pledge it would create hundreds of jobs and transform the whole area?

The reasons for Muscat’s championing of that doomed project only became obvious once the names of Husni Bey’s Maltese enablers became known.

The disgraced Nexia BT accountant, Brian Tonna, notorious for setting up Keith Schembri’s and Konrad Mizzi’s secretive financial structures, was linked to Husni Bey’s “investments” in Malta.

Mizzi’s lawyer, Jean Paul Sammut, was appointed Chief Operations Officer for Husni Bey’s Metropolis project.

Keith Seychell, a business partner of Muscat’s then chief of staff, Keith Schembri and former environment minister Jose Herrera, was also working with the Libyan businessman.

Seychell notoriously opened his Capo Crudo restaurant soon after Muscat took office in 2013. He took over the former regatta club at the Valletta waterfront without approval from the Lands Authority and converted it into a fine dining venue.

For years, Seychell continued to run that restaurant despite enforcement orders issued by the Planning Authority relating to multiple planning infringements. Seychell accumulated €50,000 in unpaid fines.

After operating for a decade, Capo Crudo was closed amid mounting debts and dwindling business. But the €50,000 enforcement fine issued in 2017 remained outstanding. Yet no criminal or civil actions have been filed against Seychell.

Sammut, the lawyer appointed as COO for Husni Bey’s Metropolis project, was closely linked to Muscat’s inner circle. Before joining Metropolis, Sammut held a significant management and legal role at Polidano Group. He also served as the CEO of the controversial Montekristo Zoo.

Sammut represented Mizzi during police interrogation and during his testimony in the public inquiry into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia – a probe in which Schembri was a central person of interest. That same Schembri was Muscat’s chief of staff when Husni Bey’s project was being pushed forward by Muscat’s OPM.

Sammut allegedly told Julian Hofstra, the Dutch national linked to Dalligate and the Melvin Theuma recordings, that he would be able to negotiate directly with Muscat’s government and the Malta Security Services on Hofstra’s behalf, potentially securing him a deal.

Hofstra had been on the run from a European Arrest Warrant for his involvement in an affiliate marketing scam when he was photographed with Mizzi in a restricted area at Malta International Airport.

Hofstra, despite his history, was apparently able to pass freely through the airport during the time that Mizzi was tourism minister, responsible for the airport. Later, a warrant was issued to bring Hofstra back to Malta from his Amsterdam prison for police interrogation and possibly to testify in court.

When a newspaper article was published indicating that Hofstra could be offered immunity in return for his testimony, Sammut was in contact with Julian Hofstra.

Sammut told LovinMalta that it was actually Hofstra who had initiated communication with him. At the time, LovinMalta had information that the police wanted to speak to Hofstra over his alleged links with former minister Mizzi, who was Sammut’s client.

The project that Muscat labelled “the right kind of investment” involved a group of people who had one thing in common.

Husni Bey’s assets were frozen because of his suspected connections to the Gaddafi regime.

Schembri and Muscat face serious criminal charges and have had their assets frozen.

Tonna has been indicted and has been struck off the MFSA register.

And Seychell still has an unpaid €50,000 enforcement fine.

If that’s the “right kind of investment”, you would hate to think what the worst kind of investment would look like.