Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1187474
The 17 Black timeline 22 February 2017 In a very cryptic post on her blog, Daphne Caruana Gali- zia pastes the words '17 Black Dubai' below the photos of Keith Schembri, John Dalli, Jo- seph Muscat and Konrad Mizzi. In a comment beneath the same post, Caruana Galizia namedrops Yorgen Fenech. 27 February 2017 Caruana Galizia elaborates on 17 Black and describes it as "the company which those crooks use to move money in and out of Dubai". She also says that the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit and the Police Commissioner know all about 17 Black. 26 May 2017 The Malta Independent pub- lishes a story claiming that an in- vestigation by the Financial In- telligence Analysis Unit showed how a Dubai-based company identified as 17 Black had re- ceived money from the agent of the LNG tanker at Delimara. The report alleged that 17 Black had to transfer the cash to the accounts of two Panama com- panies set up by Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi. The FIAU report is not a finalised version and the agency continues work- ing on the case. 16 October 2017 Daphne Caruana Galizia is as- sassinated with a powerful car bomb. Less than two months later, three men are charged with her murder but the mas- termind is still at large. 18 April 2018 The Daphne Project reveals that 17 Black and a second com- pany, Macbridge, were listed as a "target clients" of the Panama companies opened for Mizzi and Schembri. The Prime Min- ister's chief-of-staff releases a press statement admitting his company Tillgate had drafted business plans with 17 Black and Macbridge but nothing ever came out of them. He also de- nies any knowledge of money transfers. This is the first time Schembri admits his linkage with 17 Black. Mizzi sticks to his guns, insist- ing he has no knowledge of 17 Black. The Daphne Project also re- veals that the Maltese FIAU traced two payments to 17 Black totalling $1.6 million, one of which was from a Seychelles company called Mayor Trans owned by an innocuous Azer- baijani national. 9 November 2018 Reuters reveals that the own- er of 17 Black is Tumas Group CEO Yorgen Fenech and the company has an account at Noor Bank. Reuters says that an FIAU report identifying Fenech as 17 Black's owner was sent to the police in the spring of 2018 for a money-laundering investi- gation. 20 November 2019 Yorgen Fenech is arrested on his yacht as he tries leaving from the Portomaso Marina. He is taken in for questioning and is identified as a "person of inter- est" in the Caruana Galizia mur- der investigation. Yorgen Fenech received only one mention on Daphne Carua- na Galizia's blog Daphne Caruana Galizia's blog, Running Commentary, only returns one singular men- tion of Yorgen Fenech by name. And even in this instance, the name is not even brought up by Caruana Galizia but is includ- ed in a quote she lifted from a Times of Malta report from Oc- tober 2013. The reference was a story quoting Fenech on behalf of Electrogas, which had just been awarded the multi-million-euro gas power station contract. Caruana Galizia used Fenech's statement that a storage tanker for LNG was already contracted, as proof that the power station was a done deal from before the 2013 general election. In her writings, Caruana Gali- zia held no punches on the Electrogas deal, describing it as corrupt and deriding the Gasan and Tumas Groups, which are part-shareholders in the pro- ject. However, while coming out guns blazing against the two companies, Yorgen Fenech's name was conspicuous by its absence throughout the whole saga, despite having been the frontman for the Electrogas consortium. In the summer before her as- sassination, Caruana Galizia had received a leaked cache of emails from the Electrogas serv- ers, which she never got around to write about. 2 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 24 NOVEMBER 2019 NEWS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 In November 2018, Reu- ters said the FIAU report was passed on to the police in the spring of 2018 and had iden- tified Fenech as the owner of the Dubai company. The significance of 17 Black is the fact that it was one of two companies – the other being Macbridge – listed as target clients of the Panama companies opened by Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi after the 2013 election. The owner of Macbridge has so far remained elusive. Fenech resigned his direc- torships from all family com- panies of the Tumas Group on 12 November but retained his shareholding. He also re- signed as a director from Elec- trogas, the company that built and runs the Delimara gas power station. However, the documents formalising his resignations were submitted with the Mal- ta Business Registry on 19 No- vember. Less than 24 hours later Fenech was stopped from leaving Malta by two army patrol boats. 17 Black, Yorgen Fenech and Daphne Caruana Galizia's blog What is 17 Black? How did we learn about it? How is it linked to Yorgen Fenech? Did Daphne Caruana Galizia ever mention Fenech in her blog? MaltaToday revisits the timeline of events 22 February 2017 • In a very cryptic post on her blog, Daphne Caruana Galizia pastes the words '17 Black Dubai' below the photos of Keith Schembri, John Dalli, Joseph Muscat and Konrad Mizzi.