Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil said that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has a massive “conflict of interest” in his capacity as Prime Minister while being under a magisterial inquiry into allegations that Egrant Inc, a company named in the Panama Papers scandal, belongs to his wife.
He reiterated calls for the Prime Minister to resign immediately.
“Joseph Muscat, in his capacity as Prime Minister of Malta has a duty to see that justice is served. At the same time, he is currently being investigated. He therefore has an interest for the inquiry to be a sham,” he said at a press conference this afternoon.
Dr Busuttil added that the Prime Minister has a responsibility to ensure that any and all proof is made known.
“In no less than five hours, the Prime Minister has already lied five times about the case,” the Opposition leader said.
He added that in the light of this, and while he maintains respect for Magistrate Aaron Bugeja, heading the inquiry, and does not question his integrity, the inquiry cannot be thorough because the “proof already walked out the door”.
On the five lies Dr Busuttil highlighted, he said that the most damning one was the claim that Egrant had always been in the possession of Brian Tonna, managing partner of Nexia BT and the man who facilitated the acquisition of three Panama companies, that of Minister without portfolio Konrad Mizzi, the PM’s chief of staff Keith Schembri and the third being Egrant.
Public documents found on the Panama register of companies show that the Dubro Limited S.A and Aliater S.A. are the shareholders of Egrant, the same companies listed the “nominees and trustees for Mrs Michelle Muscat” by the alleged declaration of trust reproduced by Mrs Caruana Galizia.
“It is not true that Brian Tonna was the owner of the company. These two firms were, from the beginning to the end, the owners,” said Dr Busuttil. The company was put into liquidation on 6 April.
The other four “lies” Dr Muscat said, according to the Opposition Leader are as follows:
The PN leader referred to the address of Egrant, as shown on the blog of Mrs Caruana Galizia which provides an address in San Gwann. Dr Muscat said that “no company in Panama can have an address in San Gwann”.
Dr Busuttil said that this was a complete lie and simply untrue, adding that Egrant’s listed address in San Gwann, the same shown on the ICIJ Panama Papers database, is the same as the companies of Dr Mizzi and Mr Schembri.
A number of corporate provision websites for the Panama jurisdiction each say that there must be a Panama company must have a registered agent in Panama, many say that it ‘should’ have a registered address in Panama, but that the principal office address may be in any country.
Dr Muscat also claimed that Egrant could not have been sold to his wife Michelle Muscat in August 2015 because it had already been sold to Brian Tonna of Nexia BT in 2013. Dr Busuttil rejected this assertion by saying that the text from the alleged declaration of trust revealing the August 2015 date, is not a document of sale, but “it simply shows who the owner of the company is”.
He also said the date of August 2015 makes sense because it is close to when Dr Mizzi and Mr Schembri had set up their New Zealand trust intended to shelter the Panama companies. Addressing the Prime Minister’s claim that his wife’s place of birth is Attard and not Rabat, as displayed on her ID card, Dr Busuttil said whoever filled in the information had access to Mrs Muscat’s ID card.
The final “lie” which Dr Busuttil stressed, was Dr Muscat’s claims that experts had told him the lack of his wife’s ID card number, passport number or her personal address in the alleged declaration of trust is dubious. The PN leader said that at the very least, the Prime Minister could have received bad advice, adding that so long as the identity of a person is crystal-clear, than the document is accepted.