PANA Committee Chairman Werner Langen said this evening that Minister Konrad Mizzi's situation regarding his Panama company "looks like money laundering", however stressed that things are not clear at the moment.

In comments to The Malta Independent after a day-long of meetings as part of an investigation in the Panama Papers scandal, the Chairman said that there "was a fair and free discussion with Minister Mizzi, but all documents in the Panama Papers create any doubts if it is not money laundering (sic), this is the problem. But we need clarification, improvement, and a discussion. It is not clear at the moment, but it looks like money laundering."

Mizzi, the Chairman said during the meeting, made it clear that his set-ups were for his family affairs, adding that they must look at this over the entire time period and in context. "We must be careful before drawing any final conclusions over what it actually means."

At a press conference earlier, the Chairman said the Panama documents and the timetable of the issue looks like money laundering, however there isn't any documented proof of money laundering. He said they will need to look into it. 

The press conference was delivered with Co-rapporteur Jeppe Kofod following their meetings with Maltese investigative authorities, PEPs intermediaries etc.

Mr Kofod said “there were many accusations in our meetings. He said that the committee is not judges or law enforcement, but we want to see these accusations taken care of in a country based on the rule of law. If there are corruption cases then we would like to see that followed through and have those people brought to justice.” He said that in his opinion Minister Mizzi gave a transparent explanation of his trust and company.

The Chairman then followed and said that both he and Mr Kofod come from two different EU political parties, with Mr Kofod from S&D and the Chairman from the EPP.

Mr Langen said that they have been conducting interviews for the past eleven hours, and stressed that this was a fact finding mission, to understand how national legislators and supervisors have reacted to the Panama Papers, what lessons have been learned etc.

The Panama Papers are based on the largest information leak in history, where 2.6 terabytes of confidential information was leaked, containing 12.5 million documents. The data was made published by the ICIJ, and The Malta Independent was a media partner.

"Tax evasion and money laundering affects each and every EU citizen and the problem knows no borders. It can only be solved in joint efforts as money will always flow to secrecy as long as this exists. The Pana committee is to investigate all mal administration of EU law," Chairman Langen said.

Turning to OPM chief of Staff Keith Schembri, he said that he was given a hand-held letter regarding his response to the invitation letter which was sent last January. "In this letter he says he is not a politician but holds a position of trust, and also doubts our mandate. We have a mandate by the majority of MEPs in the European Parliament. It is not possible for us to accept this."

The committee began its investigations around Europe on September 2016, through hearings with journalists, authorities, EU Commissioners etc.

The committee is holding hearings with intermediaries, and through fact finding missions to Malta, the UK, Luxembourg and the USA.

"The conclusion of the investigation is expected in July, but we will request an extension to November. It is too early to present conclusion and recommendations, but so far the Panama Papers shed light on unacceptable levels of secrecy for tax avoidance, evasion and money laundering. We held eight meetings today, with the Finance Minister for 90 minutes, followed by the tax compliance unit, the MFSA, the FIAU and Police commissioners, four journalists, intermediaries, law firms, tax advisors and banks, and at the end we met two PEPs, Minister Konrad Mizzi and PN Deputy Leader Beppe Fenech Adami."

"We don't have any final results and we are not part of an internal political discussion."

Co Rapporteur Kofod said that the Pana committee was here on a fact finding mission, looking at tax evasion and money laundering legislation, and how the EU can fight loopholes in legislation.

"It has been a productive visit and, as you know intermediaries played a huge role in the Panama Papers and so we spoke with them."

"Tax avoidance agenda is huge on the EU scene."

Asked for their preliminary assessment of Malta's tax system, they said that the Committee will need to evaluate what was discussed today, and said that the committee will look at the tax system, in the sense of how different EU regulations are being implemented and enforced. He added that the committee held a good meeting with Finance Minister Edward Scicluna. He mentioned that Malta has beneficial schemes for corporate taxation, which they would want to further investigate, but stressed that they do not have any conclusions yet.

Asked whether any reference was made regarding the prosecution of Minister Konrad Mizzi, the Chairman said that he cannot speak about specific cases.

Also asked whether they were pleased with how the Maltese authorities handled the situation, they said that they recognise that there is a procedure, which leads to whether there is a criminal situation or investigation, and a decision is taken by the Commissioner of Police.

Greens MEP Sven Giegold said that former FIAU Director Manfred Galdes said that a number of prosecutions had taken place and money had been frozen due to suspicious transactions reported, but that this number was low. My conclusion is that those working in public and those in the private system on either political side are too close to one another."

S&D MEP Ana Gomes brought up a separate situation, involving former PN MP Noel Scicluna, regarding his work as an intermediary regarding the Angolan President's family, and said that she believes there is corruption there. This case is linked to allegations that the daughter of Angola's president, Isabel dos Santos, uses Malta shell companies to hold her major interests in state-owned diamonds, banking, and telecoms.