A lot has been said over the past three months about the Panama affair. The situation can be confusing. Kurt Sansone picks out salient statements made by Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri and contrasts them with the evidence that emerges from Panama Papers.

Keith Schembri on directorships

February 28: “…all my companies are being managed by a team of professional executives. I do not get involved in decisions taken by my companies’ directors…”

March 13: “Prior to entering office I relinquished executive posts of all my commercial interests…”

Fact: Mr Schembri officially resigned his directorships in Kasco Holdings, his Malta company, soon after the election. However, in the summer of 2015, through his advisors Nexia BT, Mr Schembri acquired Tillgate, a Panama-registered company.

‘Trust me I’m a politician’ cuff links for sale at the same establishment.

The Panama Papers show that in all their email exchanges with Mossack Fonseca on Tillgate’s source of funds, Nexia were speaking on Mr Schembri’s behalf. It is these email exchanges that uncover what appears to have been a plan to earn money from waste recycling and online gaming activities. If these activities were to be undertaken by Mr Schembri’s companies, it provokes the question of why he was the one appearing in the email exchanges and not Kasco Holdings as a body corporate.

Keith Schembri on audit

February 28: “I will be asking a reputed auditing firm, independent of my financial advisors, to audit the New Zealand-based trust and related operations…”

Fact: Nobody knows whether the audit has started and what the terms of engagement are. The name of the audit firm has not been divulged, and it is unclear whether the audit will be financed by Mr Schembri or the government. No deadline has been given for the completion of such an audit. In any case, an audit is not an investigation that tries to weed out corruption, and it will only uncover information depending on the terms of engagement. Furthermore, an audit will not deliver judgement on political rectitude.

Nobody knows whether the audit has started and what the terms of engagement are

Keith Schembri on estate planning

April 10: “Tillgate Inc was acquired by myself on the 2nd of July 2015… The acquisition of the company was solely for the purposes of its settlement into the New Zealand Trust, Haast Trust, and is intended solely for estate planning.”

Fact: The documents from Panama Papers do not back up Mr Schembri’s claim. According to the due diligence questionnaire, which Mossack Fonseca submitted on Mr Schembri’s behalf to the New Zealand firm setting up his trust, the box next to estate planning remained unticked. Furthermore, email exchanges between Karl Cini of Nexia BT and Mossack Fonseca offices show that Tillgate had to start receiving funds from commercial activity that Mr Schembri and Konrad Mizzi were to engage in.

Keith Schembri on the revelations in the Australian Financial Review

April 18: “The documentation released, confirms beyond doubt that Mr Chenoweth is erroneously attributing communication between Nexia BT and Mossack Fonseca to Mr Schembri. Mr Neil Chenoweth seems to believe that Nexia BT only have two clients.”

Fact: Mr Schembri was referring to an article that was published in the Australian Financial Review – a partner in the Panama Papers investigation, Neil Chenoweth being the journalist – which showed how Mr Schembri and Dr Mizzi had tried to open bank accounts for their Panama companies. Mr Schembri suggested that the journalist was confusing facts. However, subsequent searches by the Times of Malta – weeks later when the newspaper officially became a partner – showed that the emails from Nexia dealing with Mr Schembri’s and Dr Mizzi’s affairs together contained client codes that Nexia used to identify their Panama companies. It transpires the Australian journalist was not confusing facts. Moreover, in every communication with Mossack Fonseca, Nexia was dealing with Mr Schembri’s and Dr Mizzi’s companies in tandem. One email even suggested the two men were business partners.

Konrad Mizzi on no bank account

February 29: “My company in Panama, Hearnville, to date has no bank account.”

Konrad Mizzi

Fact: The only evidence so far proving that no bank account was opened for Hearnville is a document produced by Konrad Mizzi. The document from the New Zealand company that holds his trust stated that Hearnville had not traded and held no bank accounts in its name. The evidence from Panama Papers only goes up to December 2015 and it shows at least nine attempts were made by Mossack Fonseca to open bank accounts for Dr Mizzi and Keith Schembri’s Panama companies.

Konrad Mizzi on no authorisation for bank account

April 13: “The [bank] accounts were not opened because these requested very large deposits for them to be opened. Mossack Fonseca had not been authorised to open such accounts because I did not give them power of attorney to proceed to do that.”

Fact: An email from Dr Mizzi’s Maltese advisor, Karl Cini from Nexia BT, authorised Mossack Fonseca to go ahead with opening a bank account with the Panamanian branch of Swiss bank BSI.

Nowhere is the London house ever mentioned, let alone its rental income

The bank initially requested a deposit of $1 million but agreed to reduce this to $100,000 so long as the annual flow of money in the account stood at $800,000. The process fell through after the bank was taken over by new owners and extra vigilance was imposed on politically exposed persons. But there were at least nine attempts to open bank accounts in countries as far flung as Dubai, Panama and the Caribbean islands. At every stage, Mr Cini was acting on behalf of his clients, Dr Mizzi and Mr Schembri.

Konrad Mizzi on rental income from London house

April 13: “I had informed the Prime Minister of my intention to have a bank account to receive the rent from my London property.”

Fact: Nowhere in the Panama Papers is Dr Mizzi’s London house ever mentioned, let alone its rental income. The available documents do not indicate rental income as the source of funds for the Panama company. On the contrary, Dr Mizzi’s Maltese advisor explains that the Panama company was to act as a holding company for funds derived from recycling activities and online gaming services.

Konrad Mizzi on estate planning

February 24: “The trust is for family estate planning… my role is that of settlor and protector and the beneficiaries are my wife and children.”

Fact: The documentation available in the Panama Papers database shows how a due diligence questionnaire submitted on Dr Mizzi’s behalf by Mossack Fonseca to the New Zealand firm handling the creation of his trust does not include estate management as an objective of the trust. It lists asset protection, confidentiality and privacy and family succession planning. However, Dr Mizzi yesterday published a one-page extract from a different document, which he claims was sent by Nexia to Mossack Fonseca, indicating that estate management had been ticked. The single page released by Dr Mizzi does not match any of the documents in Panama Papers.