Judge JD Camilleri will be submitting the board of inquiry’s report on the CapitalOne investigation tomorrow (Monday) following the four-week extension the board had been granted, a spokesperson from the Office of the Prime Minister has told The Malta Independent on Sunday. The spokesperson did not give an exact date as to when the report will be made public.
The board had originally been given till 16 January 2017 to submit its findings.
This means that the report will be submitted on the very day that the European Parliament’s Panama Papers committee (PANA) is in Malta as part of an investigation involving Minister Konrad Mizzi and OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri, as reported by The Malta Independent last month.
The PANA committee has sought a meeting with PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami, to which he has agreed. The committee is investigating not only the Panama Papers allegations, but also possible contraventions and maladministration in the application of EU law in relation to money laundering, tax avoidance and tax evasion.
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat immediately called for the inquiry on 11 October after reports that in April 2013 the Dutch police failed to pursue an investigation into money laundering by an international firm when the name of one of its then directors, Beppe Fenech Adami, cropped up.
CapitalOne’s shares were held by Baltimore Fiduciary Services Ltd, which at the time included a number of Cypriot companies belonging to Dutchman Robert Soogea. Mr Soogea’s four properties were raided in November 2012 and close to €100,000 in cash and papers regarding his beneficial ownership of these companies were found by Dutch police.
Judges Joseph Camilleri, Lawrence Quintano and Philip Sciberras are the three former members of the judiciary that have been tasked with investigating the allegations.
Justice Minister Owen Bonnici had told the press that the board of inquiry were tasked with examining four central allegations: that a public authority withheld information, that the authority did not cooperate with Dutch authorities in the broader investigation, that the authorities held back that a number companies registered in Malta made suspicious monetary transactions, and that certain public institutions failed to carry out their duty and investigate the claims.
Dr Bonnici went on to say that the investigation does not focus on a politically exposed person, but on the authorities and public institutions that may have failed to carry out their duties.
Dr Fenech Adami has always maintained that he never knew of an investigation into the company.
In fact, it was co-director Richard Abdilla Castillo who executed all of CapitalOne’s decisions. However, that does not mean that as the director of the company Beppe Fenech Adami does not shoulder some form of legal responsibility.
While Dr Muscat’s eagerness to issue on inquiry into these serious allegations should be respected, it remains to be seen why the Prime Minister was less enthusiastic about an inquiry into Panama Papers and the accounts opened by his minister and chief of staff, especially considering he was steadfast about holding inquiries into his own ministers, such as Manuel Mallia.