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Karl Schembri
The investigator is under investigation. Joe Zahra, 50, is officially accused of fabricating evidence and spreading false news about people he knew to be innocent.
The private investigator and former police officer makes a living out of collecting damning evidence for his clients’ perusal. His clients range from married people seeking some sleazy evidence for a hefty separation deal to, it now transpires, international consortia bidding for multi-million tenders.
Lou Bondi and his company, Where’s Everybody?, was one of Zahra’s clients. Zahra is, in fact, the essential component in Bondi’s and Joe Azzopardi’s teams when it comes to undercover investigations. His techniques include covert filming, entrapment, and undercover infiltration in restricted circles – the most notable being a lodge of Freemasons and a satanic ring.
Apart from his undercover work for the programmes, Zahra has also been openly filming press conferences and attending press events as a journalist, at times wearing official press cards.
In their press release issued on the day of Zahra’s arraignment, the directors of Where’s Everybody? said the investigator used to give “consultancy services” and that his services were being stopped pending the conclusion of legal procedures.
As with all other news organisations around the world whose staff or contributors have been accused of fabricating stories, it is now time for Where’s Everybody? to seriously review Zahra’s input in its investigations in the last years, to scrutinise their veracity.
When contacted, Zahra would not answer any questions.
An acerbic Lou Bondi said: “As you know, the work he did for BondiPlus had nothing to do with his private work. I carry full responsibility for my programmes and if MaltaToday has any questions it should ask me, as it had the chance to ask in the past without taking it.”
Bondi’s defensive stand when questioned will do little to clear the air.
“I’m taking down notes as I speak to you,” he said, insisting that he will use them to compare them with his comments reported here.
Quizzed as to whether he had used Zahra’s report in his programme on the Mater Dei contract last November, Bondi denied categorically and reiterated that BondiPlus had nothing to do with Zahra’s private investigations.
He replied in the negative when asked whether he had seen the report that has got Zahra into a pickle and whether he was aware of its contents.
The argument that Zahra’s job as private investigator was totally separate from his job with Where’s Everybody? is technically true, but it does little to minimise his credibility problem.
Stripping at night time, for example, may be totally separate from working as a news anchor, but PBS still ruled last week (albeit after years of deliberation) that one of its journalists could not do both.
While it is true that Zahra is being investigated for allegations he made in a report commissioned by a different client, his credibility has been tarnished, especially so when the methods he used in private practice to gather information seem to be similar to those he used in his journalistic investigations.
One of the police charges is that of “simulating an offence”.
The chairman of the PBS editorial board, Fr Joe Borg, said Bondi called him last Sunday – the day when the story of the investigator’s impending arraignment was reported on The Malta Independent on Sunday, The Sunday Times and on PBS without mentioning Zahra by name. Lou called me on Sunday to tell me he accepted Zahra’s resignation, which I think was the right decision,” Fr Borg said, adding that the charges Zahra is facing have nothing to do with the programme, and that he remains innocent pending a court sentence.
Asked whether he felt PBS should investigate the veracity of the research carried out by Zahra in past programmes, Fr Borg said: “As long as there are no serious charges of fabrication or any wrongdoing I don’t see the point. They have to be serious charges, not just rumours.”
In the meantime, legal procedures can only be expected to take years to establish once and for all whether Zahra has indeed fabricated the evidence he presented in the Mater Dei report. Until then, of course, he remains innocent until proven otherwise.
The charges together could carry a sentence of more than four years’ imprisonment.
But beyond the actual charges, Zahra and Where’s Everybody? have yet to address the contradictions inherent in his dual role as ‘journalist’ and paid private investigator.
As journalist Tim Fleck of the Houston Press once put it: “Legitimate newspeople do not moonlight as private eyes peddling their skills to clients.”
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