Status unknown: Rosianne Cutajar tax probe ‘covered by official secrecy’

Commissioner for Revenue Joseph Caruana said the current status of the tax investigation into former Labour MP Rosianne Cutajar’s undeclared profits from a property deal with Daphne Caruana Galizia murder suspect Yorgen Fenech is “covered by official secrecy” in response to The Shift’s requests for an update.

In July 2021, former Tax Commissioner Marvin Gaerty confirmed that an investigation into the undeclared income had started in January, a few weeks after The Times of Malta’s revelations of the deal.

The May 2019 property deal saw Cutajar pocketing an estimated €46,500 in brokerage fees for the €3.1 million property in Mdina, which Fenech purchased. Cutajar failed to declare the income from the sale.

On Monday, Commissioner Caruana told The Shift, “The information being requested is covered by official secrecy and may not be divulged” when asked for an update on the investigation status, which has been ongoing for over two years.

A separate investigation into the deal by the former Commissioner for Standards in Public Life in 2021 found that Cutajar had committed a breach of ethics, forcing her to resign from her role as parliamentary secretary.

The brokerage fees were given to Cutajar by the property’s owner, Joseph Camilleri, who had negotiated with Fenech through Cutajar and her associate Charles ‘It-Tikka’ Farrugia.

Two years and counting

In December 2020, it was revealed that Camilleri sought reimbursement for the fees from Cutajar since the deal did not go through, given Fenech’s imprisonment in November 2019 in connection with the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Following the revelations, two separate investigations were initiated. One by the Standards Commissioner’s office led by former Commissioner Hyzler and another by the Inland Revenue Department under former Commissioner Gaerty.

Pending Hyzler’s investigation, Cutajar resigned as parliamentary secretary for equality and reforms in February 2021.

Following her resignation, The Shift revealed that she was paid €28,000 in termination benefits from public coffers despite retaining her MP salary and being given an additional €10,000 per year position as Chair of parliament’s health committee. Cutajar retains this role to this day.

Hyzler’s investigation, lasting more than six months, concluded in July 2021 that Cutajar had indeed committed several breaches of ethics and recommended a separate investigation by the tax commissioner.

In April 2021, a third investigation into Cutajar was initiated by the Parliamentary Assembly for the Council of Europe (PACE) over her criticism of Pieter Omzigt’s report on Malta, where she defended the Electrogas deal, only for her relationship with Yorgen Fenech, a key player in the deal, to be later exposed.

A year later, in April 2022, the PACE investigation concluded that Cutajar should have acted ‘with greater care’.

A year after that, in April 2023, Cutajar resigned from the Labour Party parliamentary group following the publication of WhatsApp chats between her and Fenech by author Mark Camilleri.

Following the chats’ publications, The Shift revealed the contract for a consultancy job Cutajar took on with ‘super-CEO’ Pierre Fenech at the Institute of Tourism Studies. The contract showed a starting date several months before Cutajar mentioned taking on the job to Fenech.