The Daphne Caruana Galizia family today asked why Prime Minister Joseph Muscat is as yet to fire Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi and OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri for having opened companies in Panama.
In a statement following the publication of the conclusions of a magisterial inquiry, the Caruana Galizia family said that is a secret ownership of a Panama company is a resignation offence, why has the PM kept his two right hand men in place?
The family put forward these three questions:
1. Why hasn’t Muscat fired Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi?
2. Why is Muscat still engaging Brian Tonna’s firm on government business?
3. Why is Muscat not interested in finding out the identity of the actual or intended ultimate beneficial owner of Egrant Inc.?
The full statement of the Caruana Galizia family is hereunder:
Fifteen months after Magistrate Bugeja’s (above) inquiry was initiated, the Maltese public is expected to simply accept as fact that we will never know for whom Egrant Inc. was set up. This is a dangerous notion that cannot coexist with democracy.
In the conclusions to his inquiry report, Magistrate Bugeja is unable to say with confidence that the Prime Minister is guiltless, nor can he state unequivocally that the allegations are false as he has been unable to prove the ownership of Egrant Inc., an anonymous Panamanian shell company that no longer exists.
When Magistrate Bugeja’s inquiry went on for several months longer than the Labour Party expected, many hoped its findings would be conclusive. That was always a false hope and one Daphne Caruana Galizia never shared.
Egrant Inc. was set up in the same period and by the same firm, Nexia BT, as three other companies: Hearnville Inc., Tillgate Inc., and Torbridge Services Inc. The only reason the public knows that Minister Konrad Mizzi and the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff Keith Schembri own Hearnville Inc. and Tillgate Inc. is because their names appeared in leaked emails from Nexia BT to Mossack Fonseca in Panama. Without the email evidence, no Maltese magistrate would have been able to prove the companies’ ownership. The only reason Egrant Inc.’s ownership is still questioned is because Nexia BT’s Karl Cini gave Mossack Fonseca the name of the Panama company’s ultimate beneficial owner over Skype rather than in writing by email.
Last year, the Prime Minister’s consultant Brian Tonna claimed that he owned Egrant Inc. throughout its existence. Journalists at Lovin’ Malta immediately showed that this claim is inconclusive. Separately, the published excerpts of Magistrate Bugeja’s report show the inquiry has not confirmed Tonna’s claim that he is the ultimate beneficial owner of Egrant Inc.
Over a year ago, Daphne Caruana Galizia correctly predicted that Magistrate Bugeja would find it impossible to prove or disprove that Michelle Muscat was the ultimate beneficial owner of the company because he would be unable to prove the identity of the company's ultimate beneficial owner. As Daphne Caruana Galizia also predicted, the UAE, where it was claimed that Egrant Inc. held a bank account, has failed to respond to Magistrate Bugeja’s request for information.
Daphne Caruana Galizia knew that the only way to get to the whole truth about Egrant Inc. and the Prime Minister -- the company’s ownership is not the only pending question -- is for the Maltese authorities to investigate Konrad Mizzi, Keith Schembri, Brian Tonna, Karl Cini, and the remaining staff at Pilatus Bank while they are still within easy reach.
Malta’s state authorities have failed and continue to fail to investigate the people who masterminded Malta’s state capture despite being empowered to do so and despite formal requests made by the former Leader of the Opposition and MP Simon Busuttil.
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has now called for Simon Busuttil’s resignation, saying the accusation, based on media reports, that he and his wife set up a Panamanian company in secret is a resignation offence. Clearly, Muscat shares our view that setting up a secret Panamanian company immediately after taking office is wrong, but has yet to ask for the resignations of his Chief of Staff Keith Schembri and his minister Konrad Mizzi, despite their undisputed ownership of secret Panamanian companies which they set up shortly after the 2013 election. Until Joseph Muscat sacks Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi he will continue to be complicit in their crimes.
Joseph Muscat’s public statement in reaction to the inquiry report, and the attendant public communication by his aides and supporters, has focused on the absence of further evidence that Egrant Inc. belongs to Joseph Muscat or his wife, Michelle, rather than on the key public interest question which has not been satisfied by the Bugeja inquiry: who was the ultimate beneficial owner of the now defunct Panamanian company Egrant Inc.?
The question is of primary public interest because Egrant Inc. is one of four related companies set up by Muscat’s consultant, Nexia BT, for one of Muscat’s ministers, Konrad Mizzi, for Muscat’s Chief of Staff, Keith Schembri, and for a consultant, Cheng Chen of Accenture, all of whom were involved in the previously unannounced sale of shares in a key state asset, Enemalta, to a Chinese state-owned company, Shanghai Electric, shortly after the Panama companies were set up.
The responsibility of a Prime Minister in a parliamentary democracy is to prioritise the public interest over personal interest. If secret ownership of a Panama company is a resignation offence, and if Egrant Inc. really did not belong to the Prime Minister or his wife, then at least three questions remain:
1. Why hasn’t Muscat fired Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi?
2. Why is Muscat still engaging Brian Tonna’s firm on government business?
3. Why is Muscat not interested in finding out the identity of the actual or intended ultimate beneficial owner of Egrant Inc.?
The answers to these questions are unlikely to exonerate Joseph Muscat. Malta needs the whole truth and Joseph Muscat still holds the key.