Labour MP Rosianne Cutajar has been found in breach of ethics by the Standards Commissioner over a controversial Mdina property transaction she was involved in together with Yorgen Fenech.  

Independent candidate Arnold Cassola, who had filed the complaint, said on Friday that Standards Commissioner George Hyzler had passed on his report to Speaker Anglu Farrugia. 

When a report is passed on to the Speaker, it means that a breach of ethics has been found. 

The report will now be discussed by the Parliamentary Committee for Standards in Public Life, which will then decide whether to adopt and publish the report. 

In February, Cutajar, then Parliamentary Secretary for reforms, had suspended herself from Cabinet pending the outcome of Hyzler’s investigation. 

Cutajar had come under fire after it emerged that she allegedly pocketed thousands of euro from a failed property deal involving Yorgen Fenech. 

According to reports, she and her close associate Charles Farrugia ‘it-Tikka’ had helped broker the Mdina €3.1 million property deal for Fenech. Fenech was trying to purchase the property from a certain Joe Camilleri. The deal fell through after Fenech’s November 2019 arrest and arraignment, and Camilleri is said to be chasing Cutajar to have her return a €46,500 brokerage fee he had paid her. 

Cutajar reportedly received a further €9,000 in cash from Fenech, while Farrugia received €31,000. 

Camilleri had filed a judicial letter in which he asked Cutajar and Farrugia to refund him €89,000 he had paid them in brokerage fees.

He said he had already paid cash in a promise of sale agreement signed on 14 May 2019, on condition that neither Cutajar nor her associate Charles Farrugia were to take the brokerage fee until the final deed of sale is signed. 

In a counter protest, Cutajar denied having pocketed the fee. She also denied having already refunded €2,000, as claimed by Camilleri, and said she will be hoilding him liable for damage to her political career.

Cutajar allegedly enjoyed a close relationship with Fenech, who, according to a Times of Malta report, had also promised Fenech “some money” while the Qormi MP had “solicited” his help over a political survey. 

She said earlier this year that she had cut off all contact with Fenech after he was charged with masterminding the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia. 

When she resigned, she had said that she had been subjected to a number of “unjust attacks, political spins, and untruthful comments.”  

She said she was suspending herself while she fought off the allegations and to protect the Labour Party. 

Prime Minister Robert Abela had said that any decision on Cutajar’s future would be taken after the conclusion of Hyzler’s investigation.