News • 07 September 2003

Mintoff wanted Pace to transfer part of Bical Bank to his nominees

Dom Mintoff, the autocratic well-off former Labour leader and Maltese premier wooed by the PN during the 1996/1998 two-year Alfred Sant stint offered Cecil Pace, then Malta’s business magnate, to accept the offer of deputy leader of the Labour party. Cecil Pace, president of the BICAL bank who was imprisoned for 14 years between 1972 and 1985 continues to deny any wrong-doing, insisting that he was caught in a personal vendetta, a web of deceit and Mintoff’s nationalisation frenzy. MaltaToday can reveal that Dom Mintoff, who was later to appoint Marxist lawyer Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici to act as controller of BICAL, had not only asked Cecil Pace to stand as deputy leader of the Labour party before the 1966 and 1971 elections, but to transfer part of BICAL bank and Pace’s companies to Mintoff’s nominees.
The BICAL bank was closed down by the Mintoff government under the premise that it was a bankrupt bank. Later it transpired that the bank and its associated companies had enough assets to meet all the liabilities.
From correspondence seen by MaltaToday it transpires that Cecil Pace confirmed this in a letter sent to a government ministry this summer.
Cecil Pace wrote: " I had been asked to accept to become deputy leader of the Labour party. Not being politically minded, I rejected the offer. Soon I was approached again this time with the proposal to sign away half my equities to nominees and I would be rewarded with ‘choicy’ contracts for my companies whilst my bank would be handling Government accounts and permits to open branches all over the Island.
" None of these proposals interested me, but I was told better agree than go to jail. I asked on what grounds and I was told that reasons would be found. And so it came about that I was arrested, mainly based on the pretext that I stole, by devious means, all the monies deposited and hence a controller was to take over all my assets to protect all depositors, creditors and shareholders."

The contents of the letters have now been corroborated by new facts that are published in MaltaToday.
To come to terms with the background of this statement one has to return to the early seventies. One of Mintoff’s closest aides, th late Anton Buttigieg, later to become President of Malta, met Cecil Pace for lunch at the Excelsior Hotel, one of the many hotels owned by Cecil Pace and later to be given away unscrupulously for a pittance to ‘well placed’ speculators.
Mr Pace’s refusal to offer his services as deputy leader and hence bolster Labour’s chances at the polls had not thwarted others from making other proposals to him. Cecil Pace employed 3,300 Maltese men and women in his many companies.
Anton Buttigieg, told Cecil Pace: "Why not welcome him (Dom) as a partner?" (Ghalfejn ma thallihx isir socju). "He’s quite a businessman." (Inti ma tafx kemm hu businessman).
Anton Buttigieg suggested that Cecil Pace transfers part of the Bank that would later be closed down, to Mintoff’s nominees. In return Cecil Pace would have the possibility to open new branches and to take over government accounts.
Cecil Pace: "So all this is to make him richer." (Mela danakollu biex naghmlu aktar sinjur).
Buttigieg did not stop here. He also referred to Pace’s companies and insinuated that they too be partly transferred to Mintoff’s nominees.
There were other messengers. Labour MP John Dalli also suggested to Cecil Pace that he should consider the proposal. He did not explain himself.
Yet, the comments that remain enshrined in Cecil Pace’s memory are those made by Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, who way back in 1972 had already appeared to have taken up his role as Mintoff’s emissary.
A day before Cecil Pace’s arrest on 6 January 1973, Mifsud Bonnici reminded him once again:
KMB: "Are you going to sign the deal with Mintoff?" (Inti se tiffirmalu lil Mintoff?). The conversation took place in the presence of Dr George Schembri, who was later to be appointed a judge.
KMB: "His proposal offers you advantages." (Vantaggjuza ghalik il-proposta li ghamillek)
Cecil Pace: "And if I don’t sign?" (U jekk ma niffirmax?)
KMB: "They will arrest you." (Inkella jarrestawk)
Cecil Pace: "Why arrest me?" (Jarrestawni ghaliex?)
KMB: "They will find reasons." (Isibu fuq xiex)
KMB: "They will come for you tomorrow morning so that you will have time to sleep over it." (Jigu ghalik ghada fil-ghodu biex ikollok cans torqod fuqha)
The next day Cecil Pace waited for the police to arrive. It was the 6 of January 1973, the feast of the three kings. Sergeant Peter Cordina, later to become director of prisons and now Head of the civil protection unit, arrived to take him off to Kordin. He would remain there for another 14 years.