Oil procurement scandal: Tax probe widens

A bunkering company owned by key suspects in the Enemalta oil scandal only paid a fraction of its trading in taxes between 2003 and 2011 after registering huge losses despite thriving oil sales. Island Bunker Oils Ltd sold $1.3 billion in bunkering and made a steady mark up, leaving an accumulated gross profit of $78 million. However, it posted a  loss of $4.5 million and piled up loans and overdrafts of $36 million. Three of the company’s directors, former Enemalta chairman Tancred Tabone, Cassar Ship Repair chairman Tony Cassar and Francis Portelli of Virtu Ferries, were charged in court with bribery last week along with Frank Sammut, the petrochemist first exposed in connection with the case who at one point was also a silent partner in the company. The Finance Ministry confirmed that a number of companies related to the scandal are being probed. Full story in The Times.