If ever proof were needed that the Labour administration makes no scruple of resorting to the basest means to protect its political clique, this was given by the dismissal from work of two top officials of the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) just 12 days after the Labour Party was returned to power.
No justification was given for the dismissals. The decision was not attributed to misconduct or a failure on the officials’ part to carry out their duties to an acceptable standard. Neither was it justified by a redundancy process.
When pressed for an explanation about this abrupt termination of employment by Werner Langen, the chairman of the European Parlament’s Committee of Inquiry into Money Laundering, Tax Avoidance and Tax Evasion (Pana), all that Finance Minister Edward Scicluna could say was that the termination was carried out during the legally-permitted probationary period of employment.
There could be no doubt that the sacking of the two officials had a direct relationship to the damning FIAU reports leaked in the weeks before the election and that landed the clique at the Office of the Prime Minister in hot water. Clearly, the dismissals reflected an instinctive retributive response following a witch-hunt and were evoked by the assumption that the two officials were the sources of the leak.
Two of the leaked reports drawn up by the FIAU detailed suspicions of criminal activity by the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Keith Schembri. One of the reports implicated the Prime Minister’s financial consultant, Brian Tonna, who allegedly transferred at least €100,000 to Schembri in two separate transactions of money coming from the sale of Maltese passports.
This money was transferred from Tonna’s British Virgin Islands off-shore bank account, which he used to receive payments, to a bank account held for Schembri by the Ta’ Xbiex-based Pilatus Bank.
This FIAU report was transmitted to the Police Commissioner on May 17, 2016, in terms of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act for further investigation followed by criminal action. However, the Police Commissioner failed to conduct a proper investigation while no action was taken either by the Attorney General, who is the chairman of the FIAU.
It was only after proof was presented through court testimony by Opposition leader Simon Busuttil, who proved himself to be the torchbearer of the fight against corruption, that a criminal inquiry was opened involving Schembri and Tonna.
Another inquiry was opened with regard to Schembri and the former managing director of Allied Newspaper, on a similar initiative of Busuttil, in relation to suspicion of money laundering and/or the existence of proceeds of crime over the transfer of more than €650,000 from Schembri to the former company executive.
The Prime Minister has posed a threat to the rule of law by turning a blind eye to alleged corruption
Had it not been for the providential Panama Papers leak, a year and a half ago, none of these suspicious cases would have surfaced. From leaked secret files it emerged that Schembri and Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi had set up offshore shell companies in the secretive jurisdiction of Panama just days after Joseph Muscat took office as Prime Minister in March 2013.
This was done at the request of the local financial consulting company Nexia BT, managed by Tonna who, apart from being the Prime Minister’s financial consultant, also happened to be Schembri’s and Mizzi’s private business accountant.
It is clear that Schembri and Mizzi would not have revealed their Panama companies if their plot had not been discovered and they would have continued using their shell companies behind the back of the Maltese public. On his part, Muscat had said he thought there was nothing wrong with what his two close allies had done.
Everything was planned down to the last detail. Tonna was given a desk in the Prime Minister’s office where Schembri and Mizzi had their own offices and, within two months, Mossack Fonseca opened a franchise firm under the company BT International, owned by Nexia BT. The sole shareholder of this firm was Tonna himself and its office was opened at Capital Business Centre in San Ġwann on the same floor where the office of Nexia BT is situated.
Rather than showing preoccupation about the FIAU’s suspicions that financial crimes had been committed by high government officials, the Finance Minister chose to cast doubt on the integrity of this government anti-money-laundering agency expressing concern about how the reports were leaked and who had leaked them. This was just three days before the two FIAU officials were given the notice of dismissal.
Apart from being a retaliatory measure, the dismissal of the two officials served to hinder them from posing a further threat to Labour through their investigative zeal. This had become evident from the fact that one of the officials had already been taken off all government investigations following the surfacing of allegations that the Prime Minister’s wife had received $1,017,000 from a Dubai-registered company belonging to a daughter of Azerbaijan’s President.
This money was allegedly to have been illicitly transferred to a bank account held by Pilatus Bank for a Panama offshore shell company whose beneficial owner was the Prime Minister’s wife. This company had been set up by Nexia BT with the Panama companies belonging to Schembri and Mizzi.
This allegation was vehemently denied by the Prime Minister and his wife. Yet, the Commissioner of Police failed to take immediate action to prevent spoliation of important evidence in this case, as it was his duty to do.
Fears have quite justifiably been raised that the inaction on the part of the Police Commissioner could have well resulted in a cover-up. The chairman and risk manager of the bank were filmed leaving the bank at night carrying bags that could possibly have contained documents connected to the case though there has not been any such proof so far.
Muscat still reiterated his trust in the Police Commissioner despite the considerable embarrassment he caused the force.
The Prime Minister has posed a threat to the rule of law by turning a blind eye to alleged corruption. People in top positions at key institutions responsible for the proper functioning of democracy are keeping back from taking action in corruption-related crimes allegedly committed by Labour’s political clique.
It seems that the law is not equal for everyone in Malta. A normal Maltese citizen would be immediately investigated by the police for a less serious crime and prosecuted in court if suspected of an offence and he may well be punished too.
Muscat is known to have gone to the extent of making a public remark on the magistrate who is conducting the inquiry into the case of alleged illicit transfer of money to his wife, which remark has been widely interpreted as an exertion of undue pressure on the magistrate.
Despite all his misdeeds, Muscat has been re-elected for a second term by an overwhelming vote by the electorate. Muscat seems invincible and his collapse appears inconceivable. However, the scandals in which he has dragged himself will remain there for him to be judged upon sooner or later.
Denis Tanti is a former assistant director at the Ministry for Health.