Court orders Streamcast to pay €300,000 to Melita for arrears

Streamcast has been ordered by a court to pay telecommunications service provider Melita almost €300,000 for unpaid fees and defaulted payments dating back to 2018.

Melita turned to the First Hall of the Civil Court for the pending internet connection fees after Streamcast also failed to keep up with a repayment agreement that had been signed in September 2019, but it still did not pay up a cent of the €294,623 that was owed.

No one from the company – including a legal representative – appeared in the proceedings or filed any reply for Streamcast. Notifications sent through the courts to Streamcast’s offices as well as its sole director and shareholder’s declared residence in Mellieħa also found no one there.

The Shift has revealed that Streamcast came out of nowhere in 2018 and was sold to the public as a “major international company’ that would invest €75 million in the launch of an international data centre in Malta.

The company even had the backing of the Maltese government with former Minister Konrad Mizzi taking a trip to Mumbai, India where he attended a press conference by Streamcast.

But The Shift investigation showed Streamcast was a company that did not have a data centre, infrastructure, funds, a track record or even a proper website. Yet, in Malta, they were given everything they requested, sold out and have now left what looks like a trail of debt.

Melita’s court application was soon followed by another filed by utility company Enemalta for around €500,000 in rent arrears, electricity bills and other costs.

Even Enemalta is claiming payments for up until the day when the project was announced. Streamcast abandoned the data centre built for it with taxpayer money in the old power station tunnels, again without paying a cent.

Enemalta had originally defended the Streamcast deal when The Shift exposed problems with the project that has now racked up debts that runs close to €1 million. Now Enemalta joins other creditors in court trying to recover funds due from individuals who appear to have long disappeared.

The Shift has also shown how the partners of Panama Papers firm Nexia BT covertly invested in Streamcast before its operations were sold to third parties.

When The Shift revealed what is increasingly looking like another deal that was designed to fail, Streamcast deleted articles from its website, closed the Facebook page and then issued a denial that covered for former Minister Mizzi.