Prime Minister Confirms Egrant Inquiry Over, Pledges To Publish Findings
Joseph Muscat and his wife Michelle
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has confirmed that a magisterial inquiry into allegations that his wife secretly owned an offshore company has been completed.
In a tweet, Muscat said that magistrate Aaron Bugeja has concluded his inquiry – which the Prime Minister had requested in April 2017 after late journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia claimed his wife Michelle was the ultimate beneficial owner of the company Egrant.
“I have been informed that independent magistrate Bugeja has concluded the inquiry I asked for on the allegations against me and my wife and has handed it over to the Attorney General,” Muscat said. “I have asked him to publish it as soon as he concludes his internal review. I will comment immediately after.”
I have been informed that independent Magistrate Bugeja concluded inquiry I asked for on allegations against me & my wife, and handed it over to Attorney General. I asked AG to publish inquiry as soon as he concludes his internal review. I will comment immediately after -JM
— Joseph Muscat (@JosephMuscat_JM) July 21, 2018
Back in April last year, Caruana Galizia stunned Malta with a blogpost claiming that Egrant – whose existence was revealed in the Panama Papers – was actually owned by Michelle Muscat.
According to the late journalist, the family of Azerbaijan’s ruler Ilham Aliyev had used an account at Pilatus Bank to transfer several biweekly payments of $100,000 and one one huge transaction of $1.017 million to a Dubai bank account owned by Egrant.
The story goes that this latter payment was blocked by one of Pilatus’ US correspondent banks.
The only confirmed source for the story so far is Maria Efimova, the former assistant of Pilatus’s chairman Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad who is currently residing in Greece. However, Pierre Portelli – now head of the PN’s media – said that he has seen a copy of a declaration of trust showing Michelle Muscat owns Egrant from a second source.
Joseph Muscat has repeatedly denounced the story as “the biggest lie in Malta’s political history” and has pledged to resign if Bugeja’s inquiry uncovers a shred of evidence to back it up.
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