Former Finance Minister Tonio Fenech this evening defended the previous government’s assistance to TRC, for which it was criticised by the Prime Minister on Tuesday.

Dr Muscat had said the Nationalist government opted to assist TRC to the tune of $10 million in spite of a due diligence exercise which concluded that the promoter’s wealth stemmed from criminal activity.

Speaking during the Budget debate, Mr Fenech said that the company had been formed between Chris Deering, Malta's special envoy for digital games and the man credited with inventing the Playstation console, Paul Taylor, who was also a big name in the sector and a third person.

The government opted to carry out the due diligence exercise on the third person because of the lack of information about him. The due diligence exercise had not concluded that he had been involved in criminal activities but there was a period in his life about which there was no information.

The government then asked the Security Services to look into him.

This person, Mr Fenech said, did not get 1c out of the €7 million invested in TRC, a company set up in Malta through an independent private equity and which included a Malta Enterprise official.

The money had been bound to jobs and went for the wages of people who had been employed by the company.