Matthew Caruana Galizia pinpointed Electrogas as the top story that his mother was working on before her assassination in a car bombing, as he told a jury on Monday that “Yorgen Fenech seemed to be at the centre of everything” when it came to the power station.
Matthew Caruana Galizia, one of Daphne’s sons and the person who now runs the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation, was the primary witness on Monday as the jury trial against Fenech convened for its 29th day.
He started his testimony by recounting how he worked with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which published the Panama Papers data leak in 2016 and of his shock at discovering that the leaked documents contained a Maltese connection.
"I was testing the system and found Maltese names involved, including Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri. I couldn't believe my eyes," he said.
He told jurors that he began discussing the findings with his mother in 2015: "I had to share what I was seeing with my mother. It was too important."
Reflecting on when the Panama Papers was eventually published, Caruana Galizia said: "It was an extremely stressful time. I was not used to being in the public eye - no one knew who I was, and I liked that. Both me and my mother were subject to intense public scrutiny, like we were doing the bad thing."
However, he said that the experience brought him and his mother even closer together: "I felt even closer to my mum. It made me feel like we were in this together, like we were a team. Her investigative work started to become more important than my regular job, and I started travelling to Malta more often, to help her."
Caruana Galizia told the court that his mother asked him to help obtain information about two offshore companies, Macbridge and 17 Black.
"I found an email that featured those two company names. The companies were crucial to the work we were doing," he said. Daphne, the court heard, already knew to look for the names of those two companies.
"What impressed me was that what she said in the message was completely accurate. She had this knowledge long before I did. I had never heard anything about these two companies. If she hadn't mentioned them, I would have never known," he said.
Caruana Galizia told the court that his initial searches for links to Macbridge and 17 Black yielded no results: the breakthrough came after a fresh batch of Mossack Fonseca documents was obtained.
According to Caruana Galizia, the documents showed that Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri were attempting to open bank accounts for their offshore companies, with those companies listed as target clients of 17 Black. He said this established a business relationship between the companies.
He said that he was even more determined to find who was behind the companies after his mother’s murder, and travelled to the United Arab Emirates with Reuters journalist Stephen Grey in an attempt to obtain ownership information from Dubai's company register.
"The last time I was in the UAE was the day before the arrest of Yorgen Fenech," he recalled. His attempts to find the information he sought was ultimately in vain, he told the court.
Caruana Galizia told the court that his mother once told him she had a source within Electrogas who was sending her emails and documents. She had shown him some of the material and said there were thousands more documents still to come.
He said that they both understood the risks involved, as the source could have exposed themselves.
"I was travelling to Malta more often and couldn't believe what she was doing. She used to blow my mind," he said.
Referring to the material, he added: "Nexia BT was involved. It was a portal opening up and I could see hell."
Caruana Galizia told the court that Electrogas appeared to be "linked to everything."
He said that the documents pointed to a company that was in difficulty and that, as he continued processing the data, "I could see that Yorgen Fenech seemed to be at the centre of everything. He featured in countless emails."
He said that he and his mother had planned to carry out a major investigation into Electrogas, analysing all the material they had gathered.
"My mother and I wanted to do a big Electrogas investigation and process everything, including the information we received. We never got to do that. When I see those emails, my heart starts beating fast... I'm taken back to what we were supposed to do."
It was at this point that parte civile lawyer Jason Azzopardi earned himself two separate €50 fines for contempt of court: one for passing comments and another for telling defence lawyer Charles Mercieca "I don't bribe witnesses."
Resuming his testimony, Caruana Galizia told the court that after his mother's murder he handed a copy of the information he had gathered to Times of Malta journalist Jacob Borg. "I wasn't in a state to work on it myself," he said.
Caruana Galizia told the court that his mother first showed him leaked Electrogas emails during the early months of 2017.
He said that the flow of documents continued before the June general election and even afterwards, with hundreds, if not thousands, of emails being received. "We were working on it day and night," he testified.
Some emails featuring Yorgen Fenech include references to a 'special K' or 'big K.' In one email, Yorgen Fenech wrote: "I see some red flags. Can we discuss this tomorrow? I would like to keep Special K on our side."
The witness was then shown another blog post by Daphne Caruana Galizia, titled 17 Black: The name of a company incorporated in Dubai.
Caruana Galizia noted that this was the first time 17 Black had been publicly identified, at a time when virtually nothing was known about the company.
He also pointed to a comment beneath the article, in which Daphne Caruana Galizia replied to a reader: "A couple of the owners of their magic new corruption power station: and it's Yorgen Fenech."
Caruana Galizia also referred to a joint investigation published by Times of Malta and Reuters in November 2018, which revealed that Yorgen Fenech was the owner of 17 Black.
"This article was crucial to me, because we were trying to work out what my mother never got to publish," he told the court. Asked by the judge whether he provided the information that ultimately identified Yorgen Fenech as the owner of 17 Black, the witness replied that he contributed information to support the investigation.
"After the murder I was in a blind panic. I lost my mother, but I also lost two massive things at the same time: I didn't know who to trust, and I had no resources to continue the investigation on my own."
Returning to the witness stand for the afternoon session, Caruana Galiziai was shown several documents, including an FIAU report, and asked to explain what each is.
One document referred to 17 Black having its name changed to Wings Development, while another includes scans of BOV statements and cheques issued in favour of Yorgen Fenech.
The latter, Caruana Galizia testified, was sent to him by an anonymous source after his mother was killed, and he added that he had been informed by another source that the bank had wanted nothing to do with Fenech and had closed his accounts.
Caruana Galizia testified that after his mother was killed, lead investigator Keith Arnaud asked him and his family to list all of the investigations she was working on at the time, in as much detail as possible.
He said that it was “a horrible experience” for him, and said: “The one that concerned me the most was the first one on the list - Electrogas. The two that followed were also related to Electrogas.”
He said that he continued to receive Electrogas leaks even after his mother was assassinated – including one at 4pm on the day of the murder, just an hour after the car bomb went off.
The prosecution asked about Daphne’s laptop, and Caruana Galizia said that German federal police had it.
He said that German authorities "offered Maltese authorities the opportunity to send questions about the data. They asked us what we wanted to do with data copies of the laptop. The originals were given to a lawyer working on our behalf and they've been there ever since.”
He is then asked about the minutes prior to his mother’s murder.
He recalled hearing the explosion and initially thinking it was a gas explosion, but then “felt the blood drain away” as he saw the tower of smoke and approached it.
“First, I saw fire on the road – the road was on fire. I saw pieces of metal and flesh. My eyes followed the smoke, and I saw a huge ball of fire. I ran towards it. The [car] horn was going off, it wouldn’t stop. I saw a shadow in the car and I remember saying ‘that’s my mum’.”
Reflecting on how his mother’s murder transformed his life, Caruana Galizia summed it up: "Ever since that day... it's been a disaster."
"I was a regular person. I'd go to work, go on holiday, spend time with my friends. After the murder, everything was forgotten. My life became about pursuing justice, about the investigation.
"I felt an enormous sense of responsibility... I felt this overwhelming urgency to work. I left my job and ended my career. I came back to Malta, and all my energy was invested in this. Considering how bad the situation was... we could do nothing.
"I want this to be over, once and for all. I want justice. Honestly, if something happens to me, I don't care. As long as I get justice for my mum, I can just disappear. After that, nothing else made sense."
Caruana Galizia then faced cross-examination from Fenech’s defence team.
He was asked about WhatsApp conversations between him and his mother about Macbridge and 17 Black in April 2016, and another former Police Commissioner Michael Cassar's resignation, which came weeks after the Panama Papers were released.
Caruana Galizia said that his mother was "frustrated" that he had resigned rather than investigated the Panama Papers. She was also looking into suspected kickbacks to Schembri from the passport scheme at the time.
That story was at the centre of much of the defence’s following questions.
Defence lawyer Gianella de Marco referred to a blog post from April 2017 where Daphne connected Schembri and Nexia BT's Brian Tonna to kickbacks from Malta's passport scheme and asked Matthew Caruana Galizia if he and his mother had been working solely on Electrogas at the time.
Caruana Galizia says that there were investigations that his mother worked on alone.
"I worked with her on the Panama Papers. I never sent her any data, I told her Maltese names were mentioned. She was working on the passport scheme [investigation] with regard to Keith Schembri," he said.
De Marco replied that Daphne had copied Matthew into some emails she had sent to Muscat, Schembri and others in relation to the kickbacks story - but Matthew replied that he had been copied in because he was at home when the source came to their house to share the information they had about Muscat and Schembri.
Caruana Galizia says that he never saw that source again, despite trying to make contact after the murder.
The questioning continued with the defence referring to a post on Daphne's website published in May 2017 titled 'Why it was in November that the Prime Minister's chief of staff instructed Henley & Partners to threaten to ruin me financially by suing me in a London court'
The hiring coincided with when she started writing about Keith Schembri's cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Caruana Galizia said that he doesn't recall the full detail, but does recall that passport concessionaires Henley & Partners threatened to sue his mother - a case which never happened as she was murdered before.