PN Politicians Demand Another Magisterial Inquiry, Specifically On 17 Black
Daphne Caruana Galizia had first written about 17 Black back in February 2017
Nationalist MEP David Casa and former PN leader Simon Busuttil have requested yet another magisterial inquiry into government corruption – this time into the new revelations revolving around the mysterious Dubai company 17 Black.
“When Daphne Caruana Galizia first wrote about 17 Black back in February 2017, [Tourism Minister] Konrad Mizzi and [OPM chief of staff] Keith Schembri had both denied having any connection to the company,” Casa and Busuttil wrote. “However, The Daphne Project has now revealed that 17 Black was supposed to pass on sums of money on a monthly basis to Mizzi’s and Schembri’s Panama companies.”
The PN politicians also referred to a leaked Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit report which found that 17 Black had received at least €1.1 million from an Azeri citizen through a Latvian bank that was recently shut down by the European Central Bank out of serious money laundering concerns, and another €161,000 from the Maltese agent of the tanker supplying LNG to the Delimara power station.
They also highlighted a number of smoking guns:
- Konrad Mizzi was Energy Minister at the time the second transaction was made.
- Both Mizzi and Schembri had travelled to Azerbaijan on government duty without inviting the press or civil servants along.
- The leaked FIAU report states that US anti-money laundering agencies had flagged transactions to 17 Black as “shell company activity, suspicious wire transfers and money laundering”.
- Konrad Mizzi had personally signed a deal between the Maltese government and Azeri state-owned SOCAR Trading for the long-term supply of LNG to the Delimara power station, even though the power station is run by Electrogas – a private consortium.
- The FIAU found that this deal appeared to have been tampered, flagging several anomalies such as a lack of page numbers on the agreement and text that appeared to have been scanned onto it.
- A month after Orion Engineering paid €161,000 to 17 Black, Konrad Mizzi travelled to Dubai in secret.
- A few days before Mizzi travelled to Dubai, Nexia BT had prepared documents for him to open a bank account in the same country.
- Nexia BT had told Mossack Fonseca that Mizzi’s and Shcembri’s Panama companies would generate around $2 million a year – primarily from 17 Black and another Dubai company called Macbridge.
- Nexia BT told Mossack Fonseca that Mizzi and Schembri were willing to pay $9,000 to open bank accounts in the Bahamas – even though they could have opened up accounts in Malta for free.
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