Minister without Portfolio Konrad Mizzi, the Prime Minister's chief of staff Keith Schembri, former PN Minister Ninu Zammit, Finance Minister Edward Scicluna, PN Deputy Leader Beppe Fenech Adami and former FIAU CEO Manfred Galdes have all been called to appear before the PANA Committee, sources within the committee have told The Malta Independent.
The PANA committee deals with, apart from the Panama Papers, the issue of money laundering, tax avoidance and tax evasion.
One notable exclusion is former Finance Minister Tonio Fenech. According to the sources within the committee, Mr Fenech has not been called to appear before the committee because he, himself is not under investigation for his involvement with Falcon Funds.
Almost a year after the leak revealed that Dr Mizzi (who at the time was Minister of Energy and Labour Party Deputy Leader) and Mr Schembri held secret accounts in Panama, the pair have been called to appear before the committee.
As was revealed in The Malta Independent on Sunday on 8 January, sources within the Office of the Prime Minister have indicated that the audit commissioned into the financial affairs of Minister Konrad Mizzi will be published next month to coincide with a fact-finding mission to Malta by the European Parliament's Panama Papers committee.
This was later confirmed by Dr Mizzi at a press conference when he said that ""very soon you will be in a position to know all the facts"
Ninu Zammit, who features in the Panama Papers after a company he owned - Fiveolive Services Inc - was incorporated by Mossack Fonseca on 23 February 2005 in the British Virgin Islands and was struck off on November 2015, a few months after The Malta Independent's partnership with the ICIJ's SwissLeaks project revealed his secret Swiss bank account.
Although he was not named in the Panama Papers PN MP Beppe Fenech Adami has also been brought into the fray.
Dr Fenech Adami had served as the non-executive director of a company called Baltimore, which owned shares in a Malta registered company called the CapitalOne Investment Group, which had come under investigation by Dutch authorities over money laundering allegations
Dr Fenech Adami will be called to the committee to give only give details about the case, since it is the Attorney General who is being investigated.
The government has granted an extension to the board of inquiry investigating Nationalist Party deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami and the report will be submitted in the week during which the European Parliament's Panama Papers committee will be in Malta as part of an investigation.
The PANA committee will be in Malta on 20 February.
Prfs. Scicluna will be called to appear in his capacity as the minister of finance.
Manfred Galdes, former Director of Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU), has also been called to appear before the committee.
This comes after European Parliament PANA Committee member Sven Giegold questioned why the Maltese government would turn to an independent audit into the financial dealings of Dr Mizzi when a report penned by the FIAU former CEO Manfred Galdes has remained unpublished.
Sources also said that other members of Malta Financial Service Institutions will be scheduled to appear.
The committee will also seek to meet with a number of journalists including Daphne Caruana Galizia, Ivan Camilleri, Saviour Balzan and Aleander Balzan. These have all confirmed their meetings, with the exception of Saviour Balzan.
The Committee has also invited Nexia BT, Deloitte Malta, Sparkasse Bank and EMD Advisory for meetings.
PN Reaction
In a statement, the Nationalist party said that “After a year of escaping from journalists, interviews and debates, the two closest people to the Prime Minister will have to explain where the million euro a year commissions where coming from, and also the identity of the owner of the third Panamanian company ‘Egrant’.”
On Beppe Fenech Adami’s scheduled appearance the Nationalist Party said that “he never had a problem to appear before this committee since he never held a secret account in Panama”
The statement went on to say that in his testimony, Dr Fenech Adami will explain how “the most corrupt Government ever in our country is ruining the Maltese name across the globe”.
“Joseph Muscat must insist that Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri appear before the European Parliament Committee to respond to the questions, and explain the third account”