As Prime Minister Joseph Muscat faces his toughest hour so far, Kurt Sansone looks at how the Egrant story developed on Daphne Caruana Galizia’s blog and elsewhere.
April 15: The Leyla and Michelle photo
Under the heading ‘Egrant Inc: hiding in plain sight’ Ms Caruana Galizia says she has discovered who owns the third Panama company, Egrant Inc. She does not disclose the name but the story is accompanied by a file photo depicting the Prime Minister’s wife, Michelle Muscat, with Leyla Aliyeva, daughter of Azeri President Ilham Aliev.
She also says that “very large sums of money from the bank account of a company owned by politically exposed persons in Azerbaijan” were transferred to bank accounts held by Egrant Inc, Hearnville Inc and Tillgate Inc. She implies the Maltese bank used for these transactions is Pilatus, based in Ta’ Xbiex.
Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri deny their firms, Hearnville and Tillgate, respectively, ever traded or had bank accounts and say they will sue Ms Caruana Galizia.
April 16: Seeking informers
Ms Caruana Galizia publishes a call for information asking former and current employees of the Malta Financial Services Authority, the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit, the police and other State authorities and Pilatus Bank to contact her in full confidence on WhatsApp. She urges potential informers to consider whether they have a greater responsibility to their non-disclosure obligations than the rule of law and the future of the country.
April 18: ‘It’s not ours’
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, at the start of the Labour Party annual general conference, denies that either he, his wife or any of his family members own any company or foreign bank accounts.
April 19: A mansion in London
Under the heading ‘Brian Tonna bought £17m house in London last year through secret British Virgin Islands company’, Ms Caruana Galizia alleges Nexia BT’s owner bought a large house in London for £17 million. She alleges the purchase was made through a company which he owns in the British Virgin Islands, Willerby Trade Inc.
Ms Caruana Galizia also alleges that Mr Tonna paid for the London mansion through Willerby Trade Inc’s account at Pilatus Bank.
Mr Tonna releases a statement calling the allegations a “blatant fabrication”, and denying ever acquiring property in London.
April 19: Leyla’s loan payments
Ms Caruana Galizia alleges that a company owned by Leyla Aliyeva made loan payments to Hearnville, Egrant and Tillgate, transferring large sums of money.
The money allegedly came from Ms Aliyeva’s Dubai company, Al Sahra FZCO, and was transferred through the firm’s account at Pilatus Bank.
April 20, afternoon: The $1m transaction
Ms Caruana Galizia alleges that $1.017 million in a single transaction from Ms Aliyeva’s company was transferred to Egrant. She says the transaction was a loan payment made from Al Sahra’s account at Pilatus Bank to an account which Egrant holds in Dubai.
Ms Caruana Galizia says other loan payments of around $100,000 each were made twice a week over several weeks in January, February and March 2016.
She also alleges that Egrant has an account at Pilatus Bank.
April 20, evening: Egrant owner
Ms Caruana Galizia claims that a safe in the kitchen of Pilatus Bank holds documents (declarations of trust) showing that shares in Egrant are held by Mossack Fonseca nominees for “Mrs Michelle Muscat”. She alleges Keith Schembri has a personal account with Pilatus and his statements show transactions involving people in Azerbaijan.
The blogger says these documents have been scanned and uploaded to the cloud, for security purposes, by third parties so that they cannot be destroyed by the bank.
April 20, night: Inquiry, the great escape
In a press conference, the Prime Minister again denies the allegations and says he and his wife will sue.
Opposition leader Simon Busuttil calls on the Prime Minister to resign.
A Net TV crew films Pilatus Bank chairman Seyed Ali Sadr Hasheminejad and risk manager Antoniella Gauci walking out of the bank’s side entrance carrying travel bags. They do not answer questions.
Later that evening, the Prime Minister intervenes on One TV to say that his lawyers asked the Police Commissioner to ask the duty magistrate to investigate the allegations made.
April 21: $400,000 loan account
Ms Caruana Galizia claims that in March last year $400,000 in the form of a loan payment was transferred to the bank account of Michelle Buttigieg from a loan account held by the sister of the Pilatus bank owner. Buttigieg is Michelle Muscat’s business partner in a costume jewellery business called Buttardi.
Pilatus Bank, in a statement, deny the Muscats are or ever were its clients.
The Panama companies
The Panama Papers revealed that Maltese financial advisers Nexia BT asked Panamanian firm Mossack Fonseca to set up three companies in Panama shortly after the 2013 election.
The companies were Hearnville Inc, with then energy minister Konrad Mizzi as ultimate beneficial owner, Tillgate Inc, with the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Keith Schembri, as ultimate beneficial owner and Egrant Inc.
According to the Panama Papers, Egrant’s ultimate beneficiary owner was communicated via Skype by Nexia BT partner Karl Cini and not via email like the other two.
The Panama Papers did not provide a paper trail of Egrant’s ultimate beneficial owner. Nexia BT owner Brian Tonna has claimed Egrant remained a shelf company and that he was its ultimate beneficial owner until its winding down earlier this year.