The French government has handed over to Maltese authorities the so-called Swiss Leaks list of Maltese account holders who held money with HSBC in Geneva, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said yesterday, pledging to publish the names of “politically exposed” people on it.

The list was transferred yesterday by the French Finance Ministry to its Maltese counterpart in an encrypted electronic message.

The announcement came after it was revealed that former Nationalist minister Ninu Zammit hid some $3.2 million in Geneva from Maltese tax authorities.

His name was revealed in recent weeks along with that of former Cabinet colleague Michael Falzon. However, unlike Mr Falzon who acknowledged he had the equivalent of €465,000 deposited in Geneva and apologised, Mr Zammit refused to say how much money he had stashed away.

At a press conference, Dr Muscat said he asked the Commissioner of Inland Revenue, who is legally empowered to handle the information, to go through the list and identify “politically exposed” individuals on it with a view to publish their name.

The Income Tax Management Act says tax information should be treated “as secret and confidential except as may be necessary for the purposes of the Income Tax Acts, or where the Prime Minister otherwise directs”.

On the basis of advice from the Attorney General, however, the government will only publish the names of those who are “politically exposed” – a legal term which refers to people who have been entrusted with prominent public roles, including politicians, members of the judiciary and high-ranking members of the civil service and their relatives.

Dr Muscat said he asked for the list a month ago during a meeting with French President Francois Hollande, followed by a formal request by Maltese tax authorities.

Names on the list started being made public by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) last month.

The French government has had access to the list since 2010.

Dr Muscat yesterday referred to this fact to point out the previous administration had failed to ask for the information, unlike others like the UK government. The tax authorities have now been instructed to investigate the data “immediately and to give the dossiers absolute priority”.

However, it remains to be seen whether the investigation will lead to any action since the money may have been repatriated under an amnesty scheme.

Theoretically, people on that list could also have had a legitimate bank account in Switzerland.

The people named so far all said they had regularised their position with the tax authorities with Mr Zammit actually taking advantage of an amnesty granted last year under the Labour government.

Dr Muscat said there were no plans for another amnesty when asked whether the government would be modifying future amnesty schemes to make sure cases suchas those of Mr Zammit were not processed.

However, he also underscored that the amnesties – both that overseen under Labour and four others launched by previous Nationalist administrations – were administered by the Central Bank, which means no administration or tax authorities had knowledge of who was granted an amnesty. He said he had spoken to members of the Labour Parliamentary group and party officials, who declared involvement in Swiss Leaks.

Asked for his reaction Opposition leader Simon Busuttil yesterday afternoon called for the immediate publication of all those on the list who had political connections.

“Dr Muscat must act like a Prime Minister and not play hide and seek with the people by trickling information bit by bit to score political points during the local council campaign,” Dr Busuttil said.

Café Premier mistakes ‘procedural not political’

Dr Muscat was also asked by Times of Malta to respond to a challenge made by Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil on Sunday to stop the remaining payments on the controversial Café Premier deal since the Prime Minister admitted “mistakes” were made.

In a curt reply, Dr Muscat said the mistakes made were procedural, not political, and therefore there was no need to stop the payments.

Dr Busuttil demanded on Sunday that the government should stop payments, with €3 million having been paid in the €4.2 million buyback deal for Valletta restaurant.

The deal has been at the centre of a political storm since the National Audit Office released a report saying that the agreement under which the government bought back the public lease of the Valletta property was marked by a lack of transparency and poor governance.

In a reaction, the PN said the Prime Minister’s stand showed how this was actually a premeditated deal and not ‘a mistake’.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.