Watch: Keith Schembri Claims He Opened Panama Company After Leak About BOV Trust
Keith Schembri said that he only opened a trust in New Zealand after information about his BOV trust was “leaked to the Nationalists” and that this move resulted in him opening up a Panama company.
On Ricky Caruana’s Podcast, the former OPM chief of staff gave his version of events of his involvement in the global Panama Papers scandal.
Schembri said he decided to open a trust so that he could carry out business once his time in politics was up, all while keeping his name secret.
“I didn’t want people who did business with the trust to know that Kasco was behind it,” he said. “This is because in Malta, once you leave politics, you’re still left with a mark.”
Schembri said he initially opened a trust with BOV but eventually received information from PN-supporting friends of his that details of this trust had been leaked to “the Nationalists”.
He said he wrote to then-BOV chairman John Cassar White to ask whether there had been a leak, but the chairman only told him that he couldn’t confirm or deny the information.
“I couldn’t trust them… I had set up this trust so as not to expose my ass to all of Malta after all,” he said.
Schembri said he then sought the advice of several people, including then-MFSA head Joe Bannister, and was told to open a trust in New Zealand.
Former MFSA head Joe Bannister
However, he said that opening a trust in New Zealand also requires the opening of a foreign company, and that he chose Panama as a jurisdiction.
“It wasn’t opened right after the election. It was opened after I set up a trust at BOV and found out that the Nationalists knew about it,” he said.
Schembri, as well as former Minister Konrad Mizzi, acquired their infamous Panama companies in July 2015, nine months before the Panama Papers global scandal broke.
However, leaked emails from Nexia BT show that the financial services firm had initiated the process to set up at least one Panama company “and possibly a trust” in March 2013, a few days after the Labour Party’s election victory.
Cover photo credit: Ricky Caruana Podcast
READ NEXT: Watch: ‘We’ll Work With BirdLife When They Stop Trying To Eliminate Us’ - FKNK Head
