Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1066826
9 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 30 DECEMBER 2018 It started from a cryptic message on Daphne Caruana Galizia's blog in February 2017 and reached a climax in April this year when Keith Schembri confirmed that 17 Black had been included in a business plan for his Panama company. But the unanswered question was always who owned the mysterious Dubai company going by a name linked to the gaming world: most probably, a lucky number played on the Roulette table. The answer came in a Reuters report that named Tumas Group shareholder and CEO Yorgen Fenech as the owner of 17 Black, allegedly identified by Malta's anti-money laundering watchdog, the FIAU, and communicated to the police in a report. But Reuters also quoted a source in the United Arab Emirates, who said account records at Noor Bank in Dubai identified Fenech as the owner of 17 Black. Fenech was the man from the Tumas Group who fronted the Electrogas consortium that included the Azeri company Socar and Siemens, which won the gas power project that was the brainchild of then Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi, who contested the election with the Labour Party for the first time in 2013. Already in May 2017, right on the eve of the snap election called by Joseph Muscat soon after the Egrant scandal – since then debunked in a magisterial inquiry - the Malta Independent leaked excerpts from a Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit report that indicated that 17 Black had received funds from the Maltese agent of the gas tanker supplying fuel to the new power station. But most crucially, 17 Black had been identified as a target client of the Panama companies set up by Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri, suggesting that Mizzi's and Schembri's companies had to receive money from a Dubai- based firm owned by one of the shareholders in the gas power station consortium. Schembri had then denied any knowledge of 17 Black. It was only with the Daphne Project at the start of 2018, that he confirmed that 17 Black had been included as part of a business plan for his Panama company but that nothing ever came of the plans. Schembri never clarified what the nature of the business with 17 Black was and who its owners were. While no fund transfers between 17 Black and the companies owned by Mizzi and Schembri have so far been revealed, the connection on its own raises serious question marks over the intention behind the whole arrangement. Fenech has not denied ownership of 17 Black. What he did was deny any wrongdoing or link to any politically exposed persons. Reuters said 17 Black was registered in Ajman, an emirate part of the UAE. The company opened an account at Noor Bank in Dubai in June 2015. Banking correspondence from the UAE reviewed by Reuters stated that the company declared it was 100% owned by Yorgen Fenech. The correspondence also said Fenech was the account's sole signatory. A source in the UAE told Reuters that around €9 million to €10 million went through 17 Black's account at Noor in 2015, after which the account became dormant. Reuters could not confirm the figures. The source told Reuters that most of the money paid into the 17 Black account had "swiftly moved on to other entities", while retaining a balance of about €2 million. The bank appears to have frozen the account in the absence of evidence for the business purpose of these in-out transactions. The Maltese FIAU had traced two payments to 17 Black, one from a Seychelles-based company fronted by an Azeri national and one from the Malta agent of the gas tanker at Delimara. Back story er be investigated for money laundering. But all this raises the question: why is the PM obstructing a formal inquiry on Mizzi and Schembri to await the outcome of an in- vestigation, which he is ob- jecting to? Muscat is clinging to the last possible line of defence before his chief of staff has to face any formal charge of wrong- doing, something that is not even necessarily so with the set-up of an offshore compa- ny alone; in the process, such legalism in the typical Maltese climate of rarely shouldering responsibility unless a court forces one to do so via a ver- dict, lowers the bar of resigna- tion further down. Muscat also blindsided the electorate with a reference to the Egrant exoneration in his own case, tainting all the allegations against his men with an issue of credibility to suggest that they are absurd in the light of the Egrant in- quiry's conclusions, which exonerated him from Daphne Caruana Galizia's accusations and those of the absconded whistleblower Maria Efimova. The Auditor General's re- port on the Electrogas tender was a further intensification of the debate surrounding the LNG plant at Delimara. The report said that Electrogas had benefitted from a last- minute addition of a Security of Supply agreement that "sig- nificantly reduced" its bidding risk. While commending the structured tendering process adopted, it expressed "sig- nificant concern" at the lack of appropriate due diligence at the final evaluation stage. Ultimately, the government had provided a massive bank guarantee of €432 million to help Electrogas secure financ- ing until the Security of Sup- ply agreement was cleared by the European Commission. Konrad Mizzi, who had al- ready used the Egrant con- clusions to cry victory, was once again using the NAO report to whitewash all accu- sations made against him. "I invite you to go anywhere in the world and question any bank. You will not find a sin- gle penny. I don't know who the owner of 17 Black is. I am convinced the truth will emerge from the ongoing in- quiry and that there was no form of corruption. I never took any money," Mizzi told the press. But if Mizzi is looking for- ward to the truth that could emanate from the ongoing inquiry, then he would not be one to stall it. 17 Black is not Egrant. And Caruana Galizia was also the author of rash canards, with Egrant being probably based on forged documents and a faux whistleblower. But it's clear that 17 Black is no flight of fancy. There is now enough light for the key players to shoulder political responsibil- ity. The PM's chief of staff, Keith Schembri The LNG floating storage unit: its Maltese agent, Orion, was reported to have paid $200,00 into 17 Black