Both former Nationalist ministers exposed of having deposited money in Switzerland had declared very modest bank accounts and concealed their overseas holdings when they sat in Parliament and Cabinet.

A review of the ministerial declarations of assets shows that Michael Falzon, a former infrastructure and later education minister, had claimed to have held between Lm10,000 (€24,000) and Lm22,000 (€53,500) in “banks” between 1987 and 1996 – roughly five and 10 per cent of the Lm200,000 (€460,000) he had deposited in a Swiss account. 

Michael Falzon

He has insisted that the undeclared money was earned in business dealings he carried out abroad, before he had been elected to the House of Representatives.

Ninu Zammit, who served as parliamentary secretary for water and energy, minister for agriculture and fisheries and minister of resources and infrastructure declared even more modest bank accounts amounting to no more than Lm 20,000 (€48,000).

He had also declared a sizeable portfolio of agricultural lands, three residences and stocks.

However, unlike his colleague, Mr Zammit refuses to say how much money he had deposited in Switzerland. 

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