Nexia BT “withheld” information from the Financial Intelligence Unit during the latter’s investigation involving Minister Konrad Mizzi and OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri, the Times of Malta reports today.

Quoting from a leaked report, Nexia BT told investigators from the government’s anti-money laundering agency that “all instructions and discussions with the clients” were verbal.

The FIAU, according to the report, considered this to be “suspicious”, arguing that some e-mails were likely to have been exchanged.

Nexia BT partner Karl Cini, who handled the offshore set-up for Schembri and Mizzi, also “withheld” an e-mail from the agency showing his clients’ reluctance to inform local banks about their offshore structures, the report adds.

The agency had demanded copies of all correspondence between Nexia BT and the Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca, as well as correspondence between Nexia BT and Mizzi and Schembri.

Nexia BT’s managing partner Brian Tonna declined to comment when approached by the newspaper.

The report is part of coverage given by a consortium of 18 news organisations which is pursuing stories that had been followed by slain journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, and will be publishing the work. The news organisations include the New York Times, The Guardian, and Süddeutsche Zeitung, the newspaper behind the Panama Papers revelations. The project (dubbed the Daphne Project) was organised by an investigative non-profit organisation called Forbidden Stories.

In a letter to The Times, Tonna denied the accusations.

We deny having withheld any information from the authorities. On the contrary, and as we have stated consistently, we have cooperated fully with them, and will continue to do so.

In so far as concerns the remainder of your article, we are precluded from fully addressing the allegations due to client confidentiality and professional secrecy obligations at law, as well as in light of the ongoing magisterial inquiries.

Nonetheless, we continue to categorically deny any wrongdoing, both from a legal and also from a conduct perspective.