Accountant extraordinaire Joe Sammut has been running a full service Maltese visa and residency permit operation, predominantly for Libyan clients, out of his Mosta office – from where he has been registering companies and securing Maltese residency permits against a hefty €7,500 fee per person, according to sources speaking with this newspaper.
Our sister daily newspaper yesterday reported that some 850 such companies had been registered by Mr Sammut over recent months – the operation is undoubtedly an enormous cash cow. Those 850 clients, for example, would result in a turnover of just under €6.4 million.
This newspaper is informed that the Malta Financial Services Authority is concerned over recent allegations that have been made in court concerning Mr Sammut’s operations, and that it has drawn the attention of the relevant authorities to the matter.
Sources with inside information on the highly dubious practice speaking with this newspaper, describe a wide-ranging network of fixers in Malta – from Customs agents to government employees and from financial regulators to banks – which ensures that Mr Sammut’s clients are given fast track company formation procedures and residency permits with hardly any questions being asked, if any at all.
They also highlight that since Mr Sammut’s clients are given a red carpet, fast track treatment throughout the whole residency permit process, which they say is all undertaken and rushed through in a matter of mere days, there are no appropriate background checks being carried out on the individuals being granted Maltese residency with the assistance of Mr Sammut’s office.
This implies that practically anyone can be given a Malta residency permit through Mr Sammut’s office – anyone, including criminals, money launderers, people wanted by the Libyan government, or even terrorists looking to gain a foothold in Malta or the European Union.
It is understood that Mr Sammut was held by the police for questioning on Friday over his registration of multiple companies on behalf of Libyan nationals, in a purported scam for Libyans to gain Maltese residency permits, which foreign nationals are granted when investing at least €100,000 in a new company. Mr Sammut was expected to have been arraigned in court yesterday but no such arraignment was made.
Well-informed sources speaking with this newspaper, however, say that no such sums are ‘invested’ in the new companies being set up by Mr Sammut’s offices, and that the granting of residency permits are often justified by the issuance of bogus receipts and invoices amounting to the €100,000 threshold, when, in reality, the companies are not trading at all.
They also describe “queues” of Libyans at Mr Sammut’s Mosta office, all waiting their turn to sign the necessary paperwork for company formations and the ensuing residency permits. These people are seen to by one of Mr Sammut’s secretaries, who furnish each applicant with a readymade form to fill out with their basic details such as age and place of birth.
According to our sources, Joe Sammut is a household name among businesspeople in Libya, particularly with those linked to the former Gaddafi regime. He is seen as the ‘go to’ person for such individuals looking to set up shop in Malta for one reason or another.
It is alleged that once contact is made with Mr Sammut’s office, a 15-day visa is arranged for those interested in seeking Maltese residency permits. They are picked up at the airport and are escorted through the VIP section, where, our sources allege, piles of cash are being brought into the country, in clear violation of money laundering laws, with Customs officers turning a blind eye and settling for a declaration of, for example, €50,000 in cash while their suitcase will in reality be stuffed with €5 million in cash.
They are then taken to a five-star hotel. The next day they pay a visit to Mr Sammut’s Mosta office, where they are presented with the paperwork to fill out and photocopies of their passports are made. The new ‘company’ is then registered at the Malta Financial Services Authority, again with allegedly very few questions being asked or background checks being carried out.
Within a matter of days, they are taken to Identity Malta’s residence permit office, where Mr Sammut and his functionaries are allegedly well known, and their paperwork is processed in record speed. They are also escorted to a local bank where they set up company or personal bank accounts.
While, on the face of it, there is nothing wrong with giving clients the red carpet treatment, the record speed with which the companies are formed and residency permits are granted belies a situation in which proper background checks on people from a lawless, war-torn and terrorist-riddled country cannot possibly be undertaken, effectively opening Malta’s doors to all and sundry.
Our sources describe a tight knit circle of people involved in the scheme, in which the modus operandi is standard and all prearranged from the moment a would-be residency permit holder contacts Mr Sammut’s office to when the permit is issued.
A chequered past
Mr Sammut, who is a former Labour Party candidate and party treasurer, has a rather chequered past due to his allegedly close ties with the Gaddafi family.
Mr Sammut was allegedly Muammar Gaddafi’s Maltese financier and held untold millions on behalf of the former dictator and his family members.
During the 2011 uprising against Gaddafi, he had relentlessly inundated the Maltese authorities by ‘recommending’ visas for his Libyan friends, saying that those he was recommending were willing to buy luxury properties in Malta, at any cost, in return for a visa.
According to the sources speaking with this newspaper at the time, a list had been compiled of the individuals on whose behalf Mr Sammut had lobbied, and most were said to be Gaddafi acolytes.
A number of stories had been written during the later Gaddafi years exposing how, for example, Mr Sammut had paid pop superstar Beyoncé to perform at a private New Year’s Eve party thrown by Gaddafi’s son Hannibal in St Barth. Beyoncé reportedly donated the funds she received to charity after she learned of their dubious source.
In addition to paying Beyoncé on Hannibal’s behalf, Mr Sammut has also been exposed as the financier who had paid Nelly Furtado USD1 million and hundreds of thousands of dollars to other high-profile performers hired by Gaddafi’s sons for their parties.
The Libyan government is currently attempting to reclaim millions of euros held in Malta in the name of Mutassim Gaddafi – the dead son of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi – currently frozen in a Bank of Valletta account.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the Libyan government says the money was stolen by the Gaddafis during their reign, when the dictator was supposedly on a €45,000 annual salary.
BOV chief executive Charles Borg told the newspaper that neither the bank nor its executives are being investigated for any wrongdoing in accepting Mr Gaddafi’s business.
Legal filings show that the dictator’s son had as much as €55 million dollars in his BOV account, often racking up €100,000 on his BOV Visa Platinum card in a matter of weeks.
The Wall Street Journal says that Mr Gaddafi started opening BOV accounts in 2002, under the guise of Malta-incorporated companies that he controlled. The accounts’ assets swelled from €700 to at least €60 million in early 2011, just before the Libyan revolution.
The role of Joe Sammut, who opened a number of shell companies on Gaddafi’s behalf, has also been called into question.
Court transcripts of the testimony given by Mr Sammut show that he did not flag the large money transfers in and out of the BOV accounts in question as being suspicious.
On his website, Mr Sammut boasts, “Through our Office in Tripoli, Libya, we provide business and logistical support. We act also as agents on a contractual basis for the sourcing and realization of business deals and ventures. Our Office provides visa and immigration support as well as government and government-related matters and issues.
“Our long years of success in Libya have always been based on trust and speed. We excel in providing a guaranteed and fast service and are proud to be working with very high profile and high worth corporate and personal clients. Our professional relationship with clients normally mature to become personal and close. This is the Mediterranean. We belong to it. That is how we are. And that is how business is made. It is unique.”