Lands Authority CEO James Piscopo to step down

Updated 10.10am

Lands Authority chief executive James Piscopo is to step down, following reports that he is the subject of an active criminal investigation into bribery and corruption. 

The authority confirmed Piscopo's imminent departure in a statement issued on Thursday morning, saying he had "signalled his intentions not to seek a renewal of his contract." 

Piscopo's decision to call it a day comes just weeks after Times of Malta reported that the police were investigating a claim made by former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri that Piscopo had squirrelled away upwards of €600,000 at the Jersey-based Fairbairn Private Bank.

The two men, who were once close, are believed to have fallen out some years ago after Schembri sensed that Piscopo was manoeuvring to replace him as Joseph Muscat's chief of staff. 

Schembri used Daphne Caruana Galizia murder suspect Yorgen Fenech to try to get the claim about Piscopo's offshore account published in around January 2019, giving Fenech a handwritten note purportedly written by Piscopo which the tycoon-turned-murder-suspect was to pass on to contacts in the media.

[attach id=1006352 size="large" align="left" type="image"]Joseph Muscat,...