Police yet to investigate Gatt’s Swiss bank details

The police have still not verified Austin Gatt’s declarations about his Swiss bank account but Times of Malta can reveal it was valued at more than €700,000 when the former Transport Minister forgot to declare it in 2005. In the heat of the election campaign, Dr Gatt admitted to having the account, which, he said, he had forgotten to include in his declaration of assets. At a press conference on February 15, called to deny any involvement in the Enemalta oil scandal, Dr Gatt had said the account was opened by his father in 1973 and he inherited it when his mother had passed away. He said there had been no transactions in the account for 40 years, apart from cumulative interest. A day later, he provided the police with the necessary details to investigate the account. What was not known then is that on February 18 – three days after the press conference – Dr Gatt wrote to the Speaker of the House to amend his annual declaration of assets for the years 2005 to 2011. In his letter, Dr Gatt gave details of his account and revealed that he had lost about €200,000 during the 2008 economic downturn. Dr Gatt told then Speaker Michael Frendo that the “managed fund portfolio”, administered...