Foreign trips by sacked MIA CEO had raised suspicion, tribunal hears

In his final months in the post, Malta International Airport chief executive Markus Klaushofer made a lot of “suspicious” trips abroad and on one occasion had asked for the company’s 10-year strategic plan, a tribunal hearing an unfair dismissal case was told today.

The Austrian national who held the post between 2012 and January last year, is vehemently denying that he leaked sensitive company information, saying such claims were only intended to tarnish his reputation.

Former MIA chief financial officer Austin Calleja testified that unlike his predecessors, the former CEO would rarely deal with the company’s procedural matters, describing him as a being more of a “strategic type”. Though he used to travel regularly, the witness said that in his final months, the former CEO’s trips intensified and had raised suspicion. 

“On one occasion he was in Paris and asked me for the company’s 10-year business plan which I duly sent him by e-mail,” the former CFO told the tribunal presided by Edmund Tabone.

Mr Calleja added that he did not know why sucha  request had been made while noting that such sensitive information was not in the public domain.

The witness also remarked that in...