The controversial loan which businessman Zaren Vassallo gave to the Nationalist Party back in 2012 was paid back in August of 2016, documents reveal.
A document which was shown to this newspaper shows how the PN had paid the sum of €165,000 to Mr Vassallo as the last payment for the €250,000 loan. A letter proving this was signed by Zaren Vassallo himself and Malcolm Custo, the Financial Controller at the PN.
Speaking to The Malta Independent, Ann Fenech said that the PN was in a position to pay back the loan in full in August 2016. She said the party was financially able to do so and wanted to start reducing the loans one at a time.
Last Saturday, Minister for Justice and Culture Owen Bonnici pulled out his guns to attack the loan which was handed to the PN in 2012. Dr Bonnici called a press conference to highlight the coincidental timing of how Mr Vassallo gave this loan after his company was given a 21,000 metre square property for the value of €465,000. The Minister had explained that a later valuation showed that the land was worth some €8 million.
The Nationalist Party, together with Mr Vassallo have categorically denied any link between the two events. Dr Bonnici, meanwhile, had challenged the party to publish evidence that this loan was paid back.
Echoing the press conference held on Saturday, Minister Owen Bonnici called for another press conference in front of the PN headquarters to call on the opposition to come clean on the issue.
Labour Party reacts
The Labour Party has issued a statement saying that the PN has now revealed that is has more debt with Zaren Vassallo "which raises more suspicions."
"Ann Fenech is saying one thing while the PN Secretary General is saying something else," the PL said while insisting that the Simon Busuttil should answer the questions being raised.
Former PN Secretary General clarifies position
Former Secretary General of the Nationalist Party, Paul Borg Olivier said that a sum of €80,000 was paid by the party a year after the loan was given. "It was nothing more than a commercial contract at a time when the Party had cash-flow problems, pending financial and banking restructuring," he explains on Facebook.
"The Party continued paying the amount due until it was paid in full and final settlement 2016 as declared by the Party. Owen Bonnici Should stop serving as a sink to wash his government's dirty hands and instead should do a press conference in front of Castile asking his fellow minister Conrad Mizzi to give him proof of where his "Million-Euro-Destination-Panama are coming from."