BICAL • November 92003

Emanuel Bonello and Grant Thorton – an exercise in gratuitous greed

Grant Thornton was set up in January 1975 as a father and son partnership, operating under the name of Emanuel Bonello & Co. It then joined Grant Thornton International in 1991. Today, Emanuel Bonello’s son Martin Bonello-Cole, is the chairman and senior partner in the firm.
"Our ethos, size and deliberate market focus enables us to be true business advisers and partners with our clients," proclaim Grant Thorton. And yet they chose to usurp thousands of liri from BICAL assets by charging exceptional fees for the secondments of accountants to assist Bonello in the liquidation of BICAL and associated companies – a process that has now entered its thirtieth year.
Fees charged by Grant Thorton include a charge of Lm720 for answering a parliamentary question in 1998 and Lm1,084 for answering sundry parliamentary questions in 1999.
In 1997, Grant Thorton charged Lm17,130 for staff secondment at Lm1,145 a month; in 1998 Lm17,256 for staff secondment at Lm1,325 a month; and in 1999, Lm19,942 for staff secondment at Lm2,896 a month. Patrick Calafato, the Grant Thornton accountant assisting Bonello, had admitted in Court that in 2002, the total fee invoiced by Grant Thornton had been of Lm30,000.