Nexia BT accountants Brian Tonna and Karl Cini could only answer six of 20 questions posed to them by MEPs investigating the Panama Papers data leak, citing their legal obligations to client confidentiality and anti-money laundering rules. 

Answering the questions posed by MEPs, the accountants wrote, would cause them to breach regulations and could in at least one case cause the firm to be "guilty of a tip-off offence".

"We would have thought that this would have been considered in advance," the firm admonished the Pana Committee. 

The accountancy firm released a copy of their written replies to MEPs who sit on the committee this afternoon. 

Pana Committee members met with politicians, financial services experts, journalists and police in a series of meetings held last Monday in Malta. Mr Tonna and Mr Cini declined an invitation to meet with the committee and instead submitted their replies in writing. 

In the replies, Nexia BT managing partner Brian Tonna denied that he had a desk at the Office of the Prime Minister or that he had been "in business" with the Prime Minister's chief of staff Keith Schembri.

READ: Pana Committee asks who owns Egrant

"We fail to see the relevance of these questions to the mandate of the Pana Committee," the firm added in its reply. 

The company told MEPs that it was the ultimate beneficial owner of Egrant Inc., and that it had communicated this "repeatedly" to the press. It cited replies to questions posed by reporters at Malta Today and The Malta Independent as cases in point. 

"We have always disclosed openly the facts surrounding the ownership of Egrant Inc.," the firm told MEPs, denying that it had ever claimed professional secrecy in connection with the company.

"Our replies to this same question have been, and remain, consistent and factual." 

The company said that gaming clients formed a "small percentage" of its total client base and that any suspicious activity was reported to relevant authorities. 

It confirmed that it had held all shares in Mossack Fonseca & Co (Malta) until April 2016, although it declined to say on whose behalf the shares were held, citing confidentiality obligations. 

Among the questions the firm declined to answer were: 

• Whether it was under investigation
  
  
• Whether it knew any of its any clients who were under investigation
  
  
• How many times the firm reported suspicious transactions since 2000
  
  
• If the structures created for Minister within the Office of the Prime Minister Konrad Mizzi or Mr Schembri had raised suspicion
  
  
• What the economic rationale behind the structures created for Dr Mizzi and Mr Schembri was

• Whether Mr Tonna was aware that Dr Mizzi, Mr Schembri and the Prime Minister had travelled to Azerbaijan before news of the trip was made public
  
  
• If the firm had ever backdated documents related to the set up of structures for Dr Mizzi and Mr Schembri 
  
  
• Whether the firm had provided comfort letters for Dr Mizzi and Mr Schembri

To read Nexia BT's replies to the Pana Committee in full, click the PDF below.