Lands Minister’s wife sets up property development firm

Lands Minister Silvio Schembri’s wife has set up a property development business while her husband is in charge of public land and has been at the centre of several scandals in which he has handed out public property to major developers for a pittance.

Filed at the Malta Business Registry (MBR) last year, where Deandra Schembri works as the regulator’s chief legal officer, DZF Ltd was registered at the couple’s residence in Luqa.

The company is fully owned by the Lands Minister’s wife, who is also acting as the company’s sole director.

According to the company’s memorandum and articles of association, the company’s main objective is property speculation, including the acquisition and excavation of building sites, construction and the provision of construction materials.

While the Lands Minister does not appear anywhere on the company’s documents, he owns half of the company through the community of acquests with his wife. This is confirmed through his declaration of assets, where he lists his wife’s new property development business.

The minister refused to reply to questions on his wife’s new private business venture and on whether he considers this ethical since he is responsible for handing out public land, both commercial and industrial.

He also declined to state whether he has asked for the prime minister’s advice over this potential conflict of interest in line with the ministerial code of ethics.

Government sources have told The Shift that the fact that the Lands Minister’s wife now has a private property development business is a red flag.

“Minister Schembri deals with big businessmen wanting to acquire and develop public land at advantageous rates on a daily basis. One can just only imagine the conflicts when his wife is now operating in the same business, including the acquisition of land, architects, valuations and the supply of building materials.”

Schembri involved in several public land-related controversies

Since Silvio Schembri was made responsible for the Lands Authority and Indis Malta, several stories involving his connections to various land speculators and property developers have emerged.

The latest involves developer Josef Dimech was granted a massive plot of public land in Hal Far to turn most of it into rentable space not associated with his aluminium business.

This plot, valued at €17 million, was granted by Indis Malta under the chairmanship of Jean Pierre Attard, Schembri’s chief canvasser.

According to law, industrial public property cannot be subleased.

The same happened earlier in another deal with Carmelo Penza, another property developer.

Earlier this year, Schembri was also involved in another scandal when a massive plot of public land in Mellieha, with an estimated value of €12 million, was suddenly issued for tender to be turned into blocks of flats given to Paul Attard, the secretary general of the Malta Developers Association and a main shareholder in GAP developments, and Paul Vella, known as Tal-Ballut .

The Shift later established a direct link between Minister Schembri and GAP’s Paul Attard, as an apartment in Luqa, built by Attard, has been serving as Schembri’s constituency office in Luqa. Both the Minister and Attard refused to state whether the minister was paying any rent for Attard’s property.

The same pattern was established for another constituency office in Siggiewi, used by Schembri for years. The Shift revealed how this property is owned by Anton Camilleri, known as il-Franciz, an established developer who is now expected to turn Villa Rosa in St George’s Bay into a massive development engulfing the whole bay.

A few months ago, the Lands Authority transferred land to Camilleri at rates below market value, which he needed to complete the land puzzle involving his controversial Villa Rosa proposal.

More public land was given to the Zammit Tabonas for their lido in Tigne, as well as to Ninu Fenech’s Tum Invest and Burmarrad Commercials business development in Marsa in the area around the former Edible Oil factory, among others.

Schembri put his most trusted canvassers, Jean Pierre Attard, Francoise Piccione and Roberta Albanese Dalli, in key positions at both the Lands Authority and Indis Malta.