Former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told his then-communications head, Kurt Farrugia, to refer to Keith Schembri’s “unsatisfactory” replies on 17 Black when Yorgen Fenech was revealed to the be the owner of the infamous Dubai company.

Farrugia made the revelation under questioning from lawyer Jason Azzopardi during the public inquiry looking into the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. Fenech has been charged in connection with the murder.

He said he found out about the 17 Black claims when approached by Times of Malta and Reuters and confirmed he first approached Schembri.

“I sought answers, but now I think they were unsatisfactory. Keith Schembri had said, I think, ‘yes it could be’. I think he was surprised by the amount of detail in the journalists’ questions.”

“I went to Joseph Muscat and he referred me to back to Keith Schembri,” Farrugia told the court.

17 Black was listed by Nexia BT the target client of the offshore Panamanian accounts owned by Schembri and disgraced former minister Konrad Mizzi.

A report by the FIAU found that 17 Black had received at least three payments – one of €161,000 from Maltese local agent for the tanker supplying gas to the LNG power station and two separate payments amounting to €1.1 million from an Azeri security guard through ABLV Bank.

ABLV was recently raised in one of Latvia’s most extensive investigations into money laundering yet.

Farrugia said that at the time he made it clear that both Mizzi’s and Schembri’s positions had become untenable.

“My position was known. People involved in such financial structures had no place in public office. I told the people concerned, point-blank.”

“If the prime minister asked Keith Schembri to resign, I did not hear it,” he said.

17 Black emerged in the news again recently after Times of Malta and Reuters revealed that Fenech’s company benefitted financially from the controversial Enemalta purchase of wind farms in Montenegro.

The wind farm was initially purchased by Cifidex, a company which Reuters said is owned by Azeri businessman and former Electrogas director Turab Musayev for €2.9 million. A few weeks after, the Maltese government agreed to pay €10.3 million for the very same wind farm.

The €2.9 million which Cifidex used to pay for the wind farm were loaned to him by Yorgen Fenech, the man charged with journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder. Following the Maltese government’s purchase of the wind farm, Cifidex paid back his loan to Fenech alongside an extra €4.6 million – meaning that Fenech made a profit of €2.8 million.

Musayev has denied any wrongdoing and has said he had no reason to suspect Fenech had any involvement in Caruana Galizia’s murder.

He said Cifidex had its own independent management and that his business with Fenech involved due diligence from reputable and established bankers, accountants and lawyers.

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