Nexia BT is once again in the news for the wrong reasons. It was mentioned in John Bundy’s programme on RTK Radio by the veteran journalists Godfrey Grima and Frank Portelli. They spoke about the issue of both Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri opening a bank account in Dubai and Panama by Nexia BT. Mizzi denied that he had any knowledge of all this. Nexia BT was also in the news for the wrong reasons in the Times, after this newspaper sent Nexia BT a set of questions, one of which was related to one of my previous blogs, wherein, I stated that one of the managing partners of Nexia BT, Brian Tonna, also has a desk in Castile. Yet, the controversy around Nexia did not stop here. The Malta Independent is being sued for libel by Minister Konrad Mizzi, after this newspaper quoted Ramon Fonseca, who stated that Minister Mizzi did not inform his company that he was a politician. The company which was responsible for opening his account in Panama was Nexia BT. The Malta Independent published another piece of news stating that Brian Tonna owns Mossack Fonseca Malta. A search for this company on the Internet reveals the presence of aMossack Fonseca Malta Co. (b.v.i) Ltd. This means that this company is linked to the British Virgin Islands.
My first point is whether here is a case for MFSA to start investigating NEXIA and check whether Nexia BT is operating correctly in its financial operations.It is interesting to know what MFSA thinks of all this.
Secondly, after the publication of the Panama Papers, people are starting to ask questions about those individuals who have accounts in Panama and how they have earned their money. The question here is whether these individuals earned their money in a legitimate way or not. Many in Europe do not only want to ensure that those opening accounts in Panama were not doing so to avoid taxes, but also to hide money that they might have been receiving through kick backs.
If I am not mistaken Nexia International has already issued a statement to distance itself from Nexia BT. In itself, this reflects the damage that this story has done to Malta and her financial services. Malta is today part of the global world and no one can expect that serious accusations that are expressed on the operation of a company in the local media, would not have ripple effects on the international scene.
What I find very interesting is the way Konrad Mizzi defended himself. He has stated a number of times over, that the Panama papers are confirming that he is saying the truth. It is interesting that other world political leaders mentioned in these papers are defending themselves in the same way. Like Konrad Mizzi, they are insisting that they have done nothing wrong. On the contrary, they are insisting that they have done their business according to theLaw. This is how the Prime Minister of Iceland tried to defend himself, but unlike our politicians, he had to resign. But Iceland is not Malta. In Malta, a politician immersed in such a murky and filthy scandal, received a standing ovation during his party’s annual general meeting!!!
An additional interesting observation is the fact that when Albert Mizzi died, the Prime Minister cancelled his visit abroad to attend Mizzi’s funeral. Different was the Prime Minister’s approach when Monsignor Ġużeppi Mercieca died.Our Prime Minister could not attend the funeral because he had already booked a holiday in Dubai, that is the country where both Mizzi and Schembri, were seeking to open a secret bank account. But was the Prime Minister’s absence really linked to his need for a week of rest or was it just a ploy because he had other serious business to attend to in Dubai? And was it only a co-incidence that John Dalli and Mark Gaffarena were in Dubai at the same time? Is it true that they met on the plane? What is so important with Dubai among the inner group of Labour? What is not being stated is that Dubai today, is in a free fall.
Mark Gaffarena and John Dalli have not denied their presence in Dubai while the Prime Minister was there. When the newspapers reported triumphantly that the Police have starting investigating the workers of the Land Department about the Gaffarena deal, the main protagonist in this deal appeared to be on holiday in a foreign land. I am curious whether the police have called in Mark Gaffarena and interrogated him about this scandal. If they have already done so, I have words of praise for the inspector leading the investigation. But if the police have not yet interrogated the main protagonists in this whole imbroglio, one doubts the honest intentions of the police in this investigation. Serious investigations should start with the main protagonists of this whole story, who are Mark Gaffarena and his political friends at Castile. I hope that when one particular media described the workers at the Lands Department as “rats”, it was not protecting Labour’s pundits.
The real “rats” are those individuals involved in business agreements, which are kept secret from the people. The Power Station deal and the selling of two of our hospitals come to mind. The fact that the Government failed to put these agreements on the table of the House is a breach of our Constitution. I don’t think that it is a pure coincidence that these business agreements, which are being kept hidden, were all concluded by the same minister whose name appears in the Panama Papers. I also don’t believe that it is a question of pure chance that minister Konrad Mizzi transferred hisshell company, which he had registered with Mossack Fonseca inPanama intoatrust in New Zealand on the same day that Gasolsold its shares in the Delimara’sPower Station. It is not a casual fact that the administration of Gasol’s finance happened to be administered by Mossack Fonseca. This makes the situation extremely serious and indicates that there is somethingin these contracts that this Government wants to keep away from the public eye. Therefore, the Government’s claim that it will be publishing all these secret deals by the end of the year does not solve matters. In the current scenario, this is not a question of too little too late. In the wake of the Panama Papers, such procrastination begs the question why does the Government need all this time to publish these contracts?