Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi said that what Nationalist MEP David Casa presented in court today is “pure conjecture”.

In reply to a press conference given by Casa this morning, Mizzi said that “no wrongdoing whatsoever was committed, and that the trust and company (now dissolved) have never held bank accounts and absolutely no funds were ever received from anywhere in the world. This has been confirmed by an independent audit conducted by international audit firm Crowe Horwath.

“No amount of hypotheses or speculation in this regard can ever be proved because they are false.

“The alleged content of what is purported to be an FIAU draft working document is, at best, pure conjecture. Any report based on falsities and speculation cannot be anything but an irresponsible work of fiction. Any investigation would show that I received zero funds and I cannot envisage any honest report stating otherwise,” Mizzi said.

“I have previously complained of a coordinated smear campaign by Nationalist Party bloggers and sympathisers in the press. The same unproven PN allegations are evidently at the core of the draft report. It is clear that this campaign was coordinated with the writer of the draft report, and the report written to be eventually leaked.”