When this newspaper broke the news last month that Gasol plc sold its 30 per cent shareholding in Electrogas to its fellow consortium members on 22 July 2015, the same day on which Energy and Health Minister Konrad Mizzi transferred the shares of his Panamanian company to his New Zealand trust, the Prime Minister described our story as “hogwash” when questioned about it by the media.

The Leader of the Opposition described it as “one coincidence too far” in Panamagate, a scandal of unprecedented proportions which, until then, had seemed circumscribed to Malta and the involvement of the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff Keith Schembri and Dr Mizzi.

A Prime Minister who is seeking to reassure the public that there was no wrongdoing in the establishment of complex offshore structures within a network of international secretive jurisdictions, including Panama, by his left and right hand men would not have dismissed such a story lightly.

At the very least, he should have pledged that he would investigate the matter further.

In seeking to quell any and all suspicions of abuse of power among the public at large, the Prime Minister should leave no stone unturned. After all, Gasol was party to a public deal on an 18-year power purchase and gas agreement with Enemalta, and it should have been easy for the Prime Minister to hold the company publicly accountable for its exit from Malta by demanding an investigation of all the papers. But above all, the power purchase and gas deal was handled by Dr Mizzi’s Ministry, which is responsible for Enemalta, and as such the removal of any suspicion demanded the matter to be taken very seriously.

Today, this newspaper reveals another fact which will be hard to dispel either as ‘hogwash’ or as ‘just another coincidence’ in relation to the scandal that has now evolved into the Panama Papers. The Panamagate scandal has now taken on international proportions, with the global network of Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca at its epicentre.

This newspaper today reports that Gasol, which held no less than a 30 per cent shareholding in the Electrogas consortium and which described itself to London Stock Exchange investors as the “lead developer” on the project, was majority-owned and controlled by a company called African Gas Development Corporation Limited (AGDCL) with a registered address at Mossack Fonseca’s office in the Seychelles.

Besides ranking among the top of the world’s most secretive jurisdictions alongside Panama, the Seychelles was one of the main offshore jurisdictions (the others include the British Virgin Islands and the Bahamas) where, according to Panama Papers revelations, Mossack Fonseca registered most offshore companies outside Panama for its clients.

The Panama Papers, however, have shed new light on the operations of Mossack Fonseca. Evidence so far suggests that at best, Mossack Fonseca should be accused of sloppy due diligence and client screening.

Thanks to an articles penned by Neil Chenoweth, a journalist privy to the Panama Papers, in The Australian Financial Review on 4 April, it is now public knowledge that the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff also holds a Panama company and a New Zealand trust in a set-up similar to that of Dr Mizzi, and courtesy of Mossack Fonseca. Although precise dates were not specified, Mr Chenoweth’s piece suggests that Dr Mizzi’s and Mr Schembri’s companies and trusts followed the same lifecycles. So far, the Chief of Staff has not denied the content of that article.

Based on documents published by Dr Mizzi, his company was transferred to his New Zealand trust on 22 July 2015, but such a precise date is not available for Mr Schembri’s company. However, according to Mr Chenoweth’s article, it is likely that Mr Schembri’s company transfer took place around the same date. 

The date of 22 July 2015 is also the date on which Gasol disposed of its shareholding in the Electrogas consortium to the other members of the consortium. Financial specialists who spoke to this newspaper on condition of anonymity said that upon transfer, Gasol’s share in the Electrogas business venture would have been valued at tens of millions of euros. Gasol had acquired its 30 per cent share in Electrogas for €3,000 in 2014.

The new information published by this newspaper suggests that the disposal of Gasol’s shares in Electrogas and the transfer of Dr Mizzi’s (and possibly Mr Schembri’s) Panama company to the New Zealand trust on 22 July 2015 have at least one more important feature in common besides the date, namely that each of the entities involved in each of those transactions had its control registered at Mossack Fonseca’s offices.

This new revelation gives rise to a series of very serious implications and questions.

According to information held by this newspaper, the two companies were first set up by Mossack Fonseca in July 2013. On a timeline, that event coincides with the period in which submissions for the 18-year power purchase and gas Enemalta contract were being shortlisted.

Chief among the implications is that it now turns out that while Mossack Fonseca opened companies that were eventually passed on to the energy minister and the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff, the Maltese government negotiated an 18-year power and gas agreement – complete with a financing package guaranteed by the Maltese taxpayer – with a consortium which included Socar and Siemens among others but which was led by a tiny company, Gasol, whose effective control was registered in the Mossack Fonseca offices in the Seychelles.

Another implication is that, since the set up of offshore companies entails the use of nominee directors, it is possible that nominee directors made available by Mossack Fonseca for AGDC in the Seychelles were business associates within the Mossack Fonseca network. 

If such situation were to be the case, then the 18-year gas and power agreement negotiations would have been tainted with a very serious conflict of interest.

Not to mention the fact that what we witness here is nothing more than a deal led by a system of shell companies which must be covering the real interests. Gasol itself appears to be a shell company. It was then majority owned and controlled by another shell company in the Seychelles, with further shell entities above it. More on this structure will undoubtedly be revealed in due course.

On Thursday, the Prime Minister told the media that he will take decisions about the Panama Papers with facts in hand and after he considers ‘public sentiment’.  But the ‘public sentiment’ can only be properly formed once the public has the facts and answers to important questions which only the Prime Minister and his government can provide. In the absence of decent explanations, no one can be blamed for registering suspicion and distrust in the government.

The Panama Papers has opened up Pandora’s Box, and it is now time for the Prime Minister to put all his cards on the table. Anything related to Panama and Mossack Fonseca is now suspicious at best. The implications and questions set out above are very serious, and cannot be swept away with headline-grabbing quips like ‘hogwash’.