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Nexia BT’s Karl Cini Says ‘Discrepancies’ In His Egrant Testimony Were ‘Misunderstandings’ But Confirms He Was Investigated

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Nexia BT’s Karl Cini has said “discrepancies” in his testimony for the now published Egrant inquiry were due to “misunderstandings”, but confirmed that police did investigate the inquiry’s concerns that he committed perjury.

The inquiry’s investigations uncovered that Cini fudged some details over the number of offshore companies he set up for the former Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff Keith Schembri, while also failing to disclose a declaration and package sent by Schembri’s  British Virgin Island account.

Magistrate Aaron Bugeja believed there was enough prima facie evidence to charge Cini and ordered Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar to investigate.

While the extent of Cutajar’s investigation is unknown, Cini was interrogated by the police for several hours on 23rd August 2018.

In his statement, Cini also said that the perjury concerns were not related to Egrant itself.

Cini told the inquiry that he only opened four companies in the British Virgin Island. However, investigations by forensic accounts a further seven set up by Cini in the offshore jurisdiction were uncovered, which were:

Colson, Selson, Lester, SPX, Blue Sea, Torbridge, and Berdil.

According to ICIJ database Lester, Colson and Selson are owned by Adrian Hillman (Allied Newspapers/Progress Press), Keith Schembri (the Prime Minister’s chief of staff) and Malcolm Scerri respectively.

Torbridge’s ultimate beneficial owner is Cheng Che of Shanghai Electric Power of the Delimara power station.

All of the companies are concealed by Mossack Fonseca’s fiduciary services company ATC Administrators Inc.

Meanwhile, in his testimony, Cini told the court that he never received a DHL package sent by Mirzella Tunon, of the Panama Paper’s Mossack Fonseca, at the end of February 2017; along with a separate declaration from the aforementioned ATC Administrators Inc.

However, an email uncovered by investigators proved otherwise.

Nexia BT has played a central figure in the Egrant inquiry and the Panama Papers scandal having set up Egrant, and the accounts of former Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff and Konrad Mizzi.

The Egrant Inquiry was published earlier this evening by PN Leader Adrian Delia after the constitutional court forced the Attorney General to hand over a copy.

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Julian is the former editor of Lovin Malta and has a particular interest in politics, the environment, social issues, and human interest stories.

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