Yorgen Fenech

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Yorgen Fenech (born November 23, 1981 in Pietà ) is a Maltese entrepreneur . He is considered a key figure in an affair involving money laundering and corruption allegations and the murder of a journalist, which led to the resignation of several politicians in the country at the end of 2019.

Life

Yorgen Fenech was born on November 23, 1981 in Pieta to George and Patricia Fenech. His grandfather Tumas was the founder of a family business named after him. The Tumas Group is active in the tourism and leisure industry as well as in the real estate sector and is one of the largest companies in the country. Yorgen Fenech took over as CEO after the death of his father in 2014. In 2013, the group received approval to build a gas-fired power plant on the island. Subsequently, the suspicion arose that there had been bribe payments to the then Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi in this context .

Criminal investigations from the end of 2019

A few days after he resigned from the management of Tumas Group , Fenech was arrested on November 20, 2019 on his yacht off the coast of Malta. This was preceded by the statement of the taxi driver Melvin Theuma, classified as a key witness , that he had received 150,000 euros from Fenech to forward them to three men suspected of the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia , who have since been taken into custody. The investigative journalist was killed on October 16, 2017 when a car bomb exploded . Previously, she had researched corruption in Maltese politics for a long time , targeting Mizzi and Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's chief of staff , Keith Schembri , among others . Shortly before her death, she had dealt with the Dubai-registered offshore company 17 Black , when its owner Fenech became public in the context of the Panama Papers . Fenech is said to have been about to flee the country after Schembri warned him of an impending arrest.

Fenech, in turn, denied his guilt after his arrest and stated that Shembri, who resigned on November 26, was the real man behind the murder of Galicia. He agreed to give full testimony to the murder and other cases if he was assured of impunity . Fenech was denied this status on November 29th by the government on the advice of the Attorney General and the Chief of Police. On November 30, he was charged with involvement in the Galicia murder and membership of a criminal organization , and his property was frozen.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Digitized version of a commercial agreement from April 2015 on the website of The Malta Independent newspaper , PDF file, 659 kB., Accessed on December 1, 2019. (English)
  2. ↑ Sylvana Debono: A birthday to remember. Newsbook.com.mt, November 22nd, accessed December 1, 2019. (English)
  3. ↑ Who exactly is Yorgen Fenech? The Malta Independent , November 20, 2019, accessed December 1, 2019.
  4. ↑ Businessman arrested in connection with murder of journalists in Malta. Der Standard , November 2019, accessed December 1, 2019.
  5. ↑ Chris Baynes: Malta journalist murder: Businessman arrested on yacht over killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia. The Independent , November 20, 2019, accessed December 2, 2019. (English)
  6. ↑ Oliver Meiler "Mafia!" - "Corruption!" - "Shame!" Süddeutsche Zeitung , November 28, 2019, accessed on December 2, 2019.
  7. ↑ Galizia Murder: No Immunity for Prime Suspects in Malta. Der Standard, November 29, 2019, accessed December 2, 2019.
  8. ↑ Accused of possible masterminds in the Caruana Galizia murder. Spiegel Online , November 30, 2019, accessed December 2, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Fenech, Yorgen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Maltese entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH November 23, 1981
PLACE OF BIRTH Pietà (Malta)