17 Black, Macbridge, and Joseph Muscat featured prominently on Monday as Keith Schembri testified before the public inquiry into Daphne Caruana Galizia's death.
In a testimony which spanned almost seven hours and which took up some 9,000 words of website space, Schembri answered questions about a raft of different topics.
Below are seven of the key takeaways from Schembri's marathon court appearance.
'I did nothing behind the Prime Minister's back'
Schembri twice told the inquiry that then Prime Minister Muscat knew everything that he was doing, with Schembri saying that he had done nothing behind Muscat's back.
On the first occasion, Schembri was asked whether he had told Muscat that Yorgen Fenech was his friend, to which Schembri replied: "Rest assured I did nothing behind the Prime Minister's back."
On the second, he was asked by the board whether he was aware of the fact that during a long Cabinet meeting in November last year people were saying that the Prime Minister was betrayed.
This is a reference to a Cabinet meeting which dragged long into the night in November 2019, after Schembri had resigned from his post and been arrested in connection with the murder. Sources had said back then that members of Cabinet - with one of those members being Robert Abela himself, who apparently told Muscat that Schembri had 'f****d' him, a remark which reportedly resulted in his wife - Lydia Abela - receiving a phone-call from Schembri himself.
However, Schembri denied ever betraying Muscat, at one point in the inquiry saying that he is still friends with Muscat, and again reiterating: "I never did anything without informing the Prime Minister."
'I don't know who Macbridge belongs to'
One thing we aren't any closer to learning is the identity of the owner of the company Macbridge.
Macbridge was, along with 17 Black, one of the companies listed as a target client for Schembri's Panama company, with an income from the two companies being the equivalent of €5,000 every day.
"I don't know who Macbridge belongs to - I told the auditors that I never gave them that name. 17 Black, I indicated myself, but Macbridge I did not", Schembri told the inquiry.
Asked whether his auditors Nexia BT had invented Macbridge, Schembri denied saying that, and noted that he had given them four other names to list. However, he had no explanation for why Macbridge ended up listed as a main client of his Panama company.
The identity of the owners of Macbridge remains one of the most enduring mysteries. The identity of 17 Black was initially secret as well, but it was revealed in November 2018 to belong to Yorgen Fenech.
Schembri told Muscat who the owner of 17 Black was
Speaking of 17 Black in fact, this company naturally featured pretty prominently during the sitting.
The most significant revelation was that Schembri had in fact informed Muscat who the ultimate beneficial owner of 17 Black was. It is significant because, as parte civile lawyer Therese Comodini Cachia pointed out, Muscat had spent two years or so saying that he did not know about 17 Black or that he hadn't spoken to him (Schembri) about it.
Asked about his conversation with Muscat in which he informed him that 17 Black belonged to Yorgen Fenech, Schembri said that he didn't know how far away it was from the publication of Panama Papers.
He couldn't recall either whether the conversation with Muscat on 17 Black was around the time when it was revealed by journalists as being a target client - March 2018 - or when Reuters eventually found out that it belonged to Yorgen Fenech - November 2018.
Asked if Schembri already knew who the owner of 17 Black was in February 2017 when Daphne Caruana Galizia published a story that flagged the name '17 Black - Dubai' alongside photos of Joseph Muscat, John Dalli, Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi, Schembri replied in the affirmative.
Asked whether the Prime Minister had asked him about this story, Schembri said: "I wasn't asked and didn't feel the need to point this out to the PM. I downplayed it... maybe I made a mistake."
'Not a single line' in passport inquiry read that Schembri took kickbacks
Another claim levelled by Schembri is that there was not a single line in a recently concluded magisterial inquiry which read that he took kickbacks on passports.
Schembri was, in September, released on police bail after he was arrested and interrogated at the police headquarters. Schembri, along with Nexia BT's Brian Tonna and a few other people, had their financial assets frozen.
The court had issued the financial asset decree on the Attorney General's request days after the conclusion of a magisterial inquiry into whether the former prime minister's chief of staff, Keith Schembri, had taken a €100,000 kickback on passport sales. The inquiry was based on a leaked FIAU report that raised suspicions about two €50,000 transactions that passed between the pair via Pilatus Bank.
Schembri previously said that the €100,000 were related to a loan repayment, for money he had given to Tonna while the latter was going through a separation. Tonna also previously denied any wrongoing.
He was questioned in relation to the inquiry again last Wednesday.
Schembri, Silvio Valletta, Joseph Cuschieri, and Yorgen Fenech were in a WhatsApp groupchat together
Schembri also revealed the existence of a WhatsApp group chat between himself, his private secretary Kenneth Azzopardi, former chief investigator in the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder case Silvio Valletta, former MFSA CEO Joseph Cuschieri, and alleged murder mastermind Yorgen Fenech.
Answering questions from parte-civile lawyer Jason Azzopardi, Schembri confirmed the existence of the group chat, but said he could not remember if it was still operational. Schembri said that he could not remember the date when it was created, although Azzopardi suggested that it may have been around the time that the three men charged with carrying out the assassination of Caruana Galizia were arrested.
Valletta was transferred away from the case and retired from the force soon after it emerged that he had holidayed with Fenech in 2018. His wife, Justyne Caruana, was forced to resign from a ministerial post only days after being sworn in under a new cabinet as a result.
Cuschieri meanwhile recently also resigned from his post at the MFSA under a cloud of controversy after it emerged that he had travelled to Las Vegas with Yorgen Fenech during the transition period between his moving from the Malta Gaming Authority to the MFSA.
The actual purpose of this groupchat was not disclosed or discussed during the sitting, but it is the latest in a whole raft of chats that apparently existed - chats which included one between Fenech, Schembri, and former Prime Minister Muscat.
Schembri discussed potential infrastructural projects in Bangladesh with Fenech
An interesting element to emerge from the sitting was Schembri's - and Yorgen Fenech's - intentions to do business in Bangladesh.
Asked about a reference in the Panama company documents to doing business in Bangladesh, Schembri said that the east Asian country was an opportunity.
"I knew Yorgen Fenech had plans for Bangladesh. One of the reasons was to exploit his contacts there. Can't I do business? Did my life end because I'm a chief of staff now?"
Schembri said that the projects which he had spoken to Fenech about for Bangladesh were infrastructural in nature, but denied that he intended on going into business with Fenech while he was chief of staff.
Later in the sitting, he said that Fenech had communicated to him the fact that a friend had been given a high position in Bangladesh and added that the Maltese businessman had informed him that he had travelled there.
However, this had nothing to do with the Electrogas project, Schembri said.
The inquiry will go on, despite deadline
Finally, it emerged that the public inquiry will in fact not be sticking to the deadline imposed by Prime Minister Robert Abela in his extension.
Under the extension granted by the Prime Minister - which he described as a one-time thing - the inquiry had to finish its work by 15 December...which is today.
However, at the end of the sitting, Judge Michael Mallia read out a decree which stated that it defence of its "independence and autonomy, it would appreciate if it were allowed to proceed with its work "serenely" so it can reach an objective judgement without any "improper pressure and undue interference."
They noted that the original nine-month limit in the terms of reference had been set out without prejudice to the "just fulfilment" of those terms, agreed upon with the family of the assassinated journalist.
"Every attempt to limit or extend those terms is thus unacceptable," the board declared, going on to state that any such attempt, direct or indirect, is to be considered as interference in the course of justice.
Prime Minister Abela has said that the inquiry has had enough time to carry out its work, and should conclude by the established deadline.
Having heard some 100 witnesses over 85 sittings spread over the past year- save for the 10-week interruption brought about by the COVID-19 lockdown- the board said that it has substantially concluded the hearing of testimonies.
However, it noted that the police commissioner, the head of the Financial Crimes Unit as well as Inspector Kurt Zahra had said when testifying, that data from electronic devices analysed by Europol, could "be substantially useful" to the inquiry.
That data should be available by mid-January, the board said. It therefore suspended hearings until then.
Retired Judge Mallia and Chief Justice Emeritus Joseph Said Pullicino declared that they are willing to renounce to their honoraria in view of the "wrong perception" emanating from certain quarters that prolonging the inquiry could burden the public coffers - perhaps a swipe at someone like Glenn Bedingfield, who had felt the need to point out that the judges were being paid for their place on the board and queried whether there were any external factors which made them want to continue the inquiry.