• Turnkey firm to institute legal proceedings against JPM Brothers
• Mega-developers JPM and Gap do big property, ‘not renovations’
Matthew Vella
The Prime Minister has remained tight-lipped over allegations that finance minister Tonio Fenech’s house in Balzan was being renovated by property speculator JPM Brothers, allegedly as a favour in return for his role in brokering a hotel sale.
As Budget 2010 unfolded on Monday evening, Fenech was greeted by the entire Labour backbench ‘reading’ last Sunday’s MaltaToday, which broke the news that a small turnkey firm had been hired by JPM to renovate Fenech’s house.
Lawrence Gonzi was cautiously silent on the affair, despite seeing his finance minister’s opening remarks in the Budget speech upstaged by Labour’s stunt.
Tonio Fenech is embroiled in a dispute with Rainbow Turnkey Projects, who claim they have not been paid in full for works carried out at his house. According to Rainbow’s director Charles Magro, who was subcontracted by JPM Brothers to carry out the renovation, JPM director Peter Montebello told him the works were a favour in return for the minister’s intervention in the sale of the Jerma hotel to entrepreneurs George Fenech and Joe Gasan.
Fenech has vehemently denied acting as a broker in the sale – which is understood to have fallen through – and on Monday filed a judicial protest against this newspaper, demanding an apology. The same protest was filed against Opposition leader Joseph Muscat, head of One News Glenn Bedingfield, and Charles Magro.
MaltaToday filed a counter-protest, defending its right to report on elected representatives who, in a democratic society, should be reasonably subjected to public scrutiny.
Furthermore, MaltaToday last Sunday also published the minister’s replies in full... contrary to the impression given by Fenech’s complaint.
Meanwhile, Gonzi has not rushed to defend Tonio Fenech, instead telling MaltaToday that he is informed that the minister paid for the works carried out by Rainbow, and of the legal dispute between the two sides.
Rainbow Projects will today also institute legal proceedings against JPM Brothers, to reclaim monies on services rendered for the works on the minister’s residence. Charles Magro says Montebello told him the minister was helping him sell off the Jerma hotel to Gasan and Fenech, the two entrepreneurs with whom Tonio Fenech travelled to Spain to watch Arsenal play in Spain last April.
Tonio Fenech has categorically denied asking JPM Brothers to carry out works in his private residence with the aim of concluding business on the Jerma sale. “It’s a lie. My arrangement with JPM Brothers was against payment, as according to their quote. Rainbow were sub-contractors for JPM Brothers and I cannot comment on the exchange that took place between them.”
Tonio Fenech has told MaltaToday that when Rainbow started slowing down work at his house because they were not being paid by JPM, he offered to take over the arrangement and pay them directly.
MaltaToday has twice attempted to contact Peter Montebello – he hang up the line on our first attempt. His brother, Jeffrey Montebello, asked this newspaper to mail him questions but no reply has been forthcoming.
The company deals in large-scale projects and is not known to carry out house renovations, such as the job they undertook at Tonio Fenech’s semi-detached villa in Balzan.
Fenech told MaltaToday he appointed Gap Developments – the developers behind Tigné’s Fort Cambridge – to complete his house after dismissing Rainbow Projects.
But MaltaToday twice contacted Gap Developments’ sales office. According to the sales representative who answered this newspaper’s calls, Gap Developments “does not do turnkey projects on individual houses… our business is to buy and develop property.”
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