While we were paying Robert Abela €28,000 a month to be the lawyer of the Planning Authority, he also made a killing on property deals.
In June 2018, he made €45,000 on a strange property deal with a suspected criminal gang ringleader 28-year-old Christian Borg.
He entered into a promise of sale for a plot in Zabbar and coincidentally sold it to Borg on the same day that a permit by Borg was formally approved by the Planning Authority.
Abela has failed to answer questions about why he got involved in the deal, which clearly had a seller and a buyer already established.
A year earlier Robert Abela bought a 2,200 square metre villa in ODZ in Zejtun for just €600,000.
But it turns out that the property was riddled with illegalities and should have never been allowed to be built. Sources say it was impossible to sell.
Coincidentally, five days after Abela bought it, the Planning Authority found a way of giving it full approval, shooting up its value by at least twice.
This means that Abela only paid tax on the €600,000.
Each day it becomes more clear that instead of working from Monday to Sunday on the Planning Authority, as he claimed, Abela was looking after his own pocket and abusing his position within the PA.
Another coincidence is that Abela met Joseph Portelli for dinner a week before the PA granted a big permit for an apartment block on the Sannat cliffs in Gozo. Coincidentally, this dinner also took place on Labour’s fundraising marathon day which saw Labour collect a record €200,000 from Gozo alone.
What other skeletons are lurking in his closet?
What other deals is he making at your expense and his own benefit?