Malta asks Montenegro for information on companies involved in wind farm deal

Maltese authorities have requested documentation from the Special Public Prosecutor’s Office in Montenegro on several companies involved in the wind farm deal made under the administration of disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat.

The Mozura wind farm deal was deemed suspicious from the start, and the press in Malta and Montenegro heavily reported on suspicions of money laundering.

The Centre for Investigative Reporting of Montenegro (CIN-CG) is now reporting that the State Prosecutor’s office in Malta requested information on several companies linked to the deal.

The request was sent on 15 November 2024, for information on companies: Možura Wind Park (MWP), Čelebić, Adriatic Energy Services, Management Consulting Montenegro and Montmorency, according to documents seen by CIN-CG.

The organisation reported that Europol was assisting in the investigation. Spain is also investigating the deal and has requested documentation due to the involvement of Spanish enterprises.

A deal that stank from the start

An investigation by The Shift revealed that the Mozura wind farm project was haunted by allegations of corruption from day one.

It showed a web of offshore companies and the involvement of the same individuals involved in the suspect Electrogas deal in Malta.

Intermediaries involved in the wind farm project in Montenegro told The Shift: “Those in the government of Montenegro found the people of their kind in Malta who they could do business with and split the proceeds”.

Former energy minister Konrad Mizzi negotiated the deal with the approval of disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat. Mizzi travelled to Montenegro eight times in two years to seal the deal.

Muscat then went to Montenegro to launch the Mozura wind farm with his Montenegrin counterpart, Dusko Markovic, on 18 November 2019. He was forced to resign soon after.

How they did it

The deal dates back to 2015 when Enemalta took over a Public Private Partnership (PPP) concession to install 23 horizontal axis turbines of 2MW each on a hill in Mozura in the south of Montenegro whose government leased the land for the wind park for 20 years.

Enemalta purchased the Montenegro wind farm concession for €10.3 million– three times the price of €2.9 million paid just two weeks earlier by Cifidex, an offshore vehicle registered in Seychelles.

The Ultimate Beneficial Owner of Cifidex was Turab Musayev, who was on the Electrogas board of directors alongside Yorgen Fenech at the time of the share transfer to Enemalta.

Reuters reported on Fenech’s involvement in the deal, revealing that he transferred €3 million to Cifidex in late November 2015 through his Dubai-based company 17 Black, which later registered a profit on the deal.

Enemalta transferred the Mozura wind farm concession to a China-dominated consortium soon after it acquired the shares.

The Mozura Wind farm project, originally touted in Montenegro as an investment from an EU Member State (Malta), is effectively controlled by the Chinese State, thanks to Enemalta.

Jonathan Scerri, Enemalta chairman between 2021 and 2022, admitted during a Public Accounts Committee hearing that the deal was not in Malta’s best interest.