Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1193631
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Fenech claims that Arnaud is too close to Schembri to inves- tigate the case serenely. He has claimed that Schem- bri had kept him informed of all the progress in the murder investigation, passing on sensi- tive information including that Fenech's own phone was being tapped. Schembri got the infor- mation from Arnaud, he claims. Arnaud told the court that police had conducted a raid on Schembri's Castille office but did not find any electronic de- vices there. Schembri's laptop was found and seized from his home and it is currently being examined by experts. That process is expected to take some time, he said. The fo- rensic tests being run on the de- vice are time-intensive. There are other laptops which are be- ing examined-previous court sittings heard how laptops be- longing to members of Fenech's family's were also seized. The sitting on Tuesday saw Fenech and Arnaud both taking the witness stand. The police had gone to ar- rest Schembri, Arnaud told the court, and after some difficulty in finding his residence, had taken him into custody. Schem- bri was released shortly after- wards, with the police releas- ing the briefest of statements saying that there was "no need for Schembri to remain under arrest." Lawyer Marion Camilleri asked Arnaud about this state- ment in court on Tuesday. He explained that while Schembri's questioning was over, the inves- tigation into his connection to the murder was "ongoing". The inspector had explained at length as to why, at first, it was felt that there was no need to arrest Schembri, the former Chief of Staff to the Prime Min- ister, when his name first came up in phone intercepts. Schem- bri and Fenech were friends, he said, and the mentions were not NEWS maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 18 DECEMBER 2019 2 'Keith Schembri Inspector tells court Keith Schembri outside his Santa Marija home in Mellieha CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The inquiry's conclusions were published in 2018 but despite the prime minister's in- sistence that the report should be published in full, the Attorney General withheld pub- lication. Delia subsequently petitioned the courts to have the report released to him, which case he finally won through the deci- sion of an Appeals Court. Delia today said that as Opposition leader, while having been told by the Courts not to publish it, his legal advice was that there was nothing stopping him from publishing it in its entirety. "The PN parliamentary group has agreed, without having read the report, that the re- port should be published in full for the entire truth to emerge," Delia said. Karl Cini may have lied under oath and should be investigated - Egrant report The Egrant report indicates that Karl Cini could have lied under oath, with the inquiring mag- istrate saying the Nexia BT partner should be investi- gated by the police. The matter revolves around sworn testimony Cini gave regarding the setting up of offshore companies. which did not tally with the findings of a forensic accounting firm. Cini had been called to give testimony before the inquiry, led by then magistrate Aaron Bugeja, on 5 May, 2007. Under oath, he had said that he had set up three companies in Panama. An investigation by Forensic Accountants Harbinson Forensics, who were hired for the purposes of the inquiry, found however that Cini had set up a fourth company in Pana- ma, Real Trade Investments Global Corp. In his testimony, Cini had said that Real Trade Investments had been set up in the British Virgin Islands, which the forensic firm found out was untrue. In his testimony, Cini claimed he had set up four companies in the BVI: Comerco, Durellie, Real Trade Investments and Will- erby. The forensic firm's investigation found that Real Trade Investments was set up in Panama, not the BVI. Moreover, the firm found that Cini had also set up another seven companies in the BVI which he failed to mention: Colson, Selson, SPX, Blue Sea, Torbridge and Berdil. In light of this, the inquiring magistrate said the Police Commissioner should investigate the discrepancy in Cini's testimony since the documentary evidence shows prima facie that he might have lied under oath. Offshore entity for China-Malta investment, involving 'Sai', brought to light by Egrant inquiry The full Egrant inquiry report has brought to light an entity which would have been the sole promoter of investment between China and Malta while being controlled by an off- shore holding company. The report delved into emails which showed "a close relationship" between Kon- rad Mizzi, Keith Schembri and Nexia BT's Brian Tonna and in which a public-private partnership for a "MACHIN Project" is mentioned. The MACHIN Project would have been an entity for the promotion of China-Malta in- vestment, and would be registered in Malta but 100% controlled by a holding company in the British Virgin Islands. The emails, which were analysed by fo- rensic accountant Miroslava Milenovic, involved communication which took place in June 2014 between Schembri and Mizzi, which itself related to an email received by Mizzi from Cheng Chen of Shanghai Elec- tric Power, which owns a large chunk of En- emalta. In Chen's redacted email cited in the re- port, he speaks about a meeting with Mizzi, Schembri and Tonna "to finalise [a] business model (…) energy-related topics, real estate, tourism (…)meeting with Maltese experts to understand the potential as off-shore investment hub for Chinese (…). The report says that MACHIN Project would have been authorised by Malta's government as the only Maltese representative in- vestment promotion agency in China. Further communication showed that "the cooperative mechanism shall be set with a certain person named Sai". The report says this could be Sai Mizzi Liang, Konrad Mizzi's wife. An emigration agency setup in China was also proposed in the emails. "Through this model a Value chain for Chinese Applicants has been created in or- der to be in a position to submit request for Maltese identity documents" the report says. The report also identifies Chen as a cli- ent of Nexia BT. "They have provided him support in becoming the owner of the company Torbridge Services Inc from BVI. This company has opened bank account in Pi- latus Bank." Torbridge is one of the companies set up in the BVI by Nexia BT partner Karl Cini, which another portion of the Egrant report says he failed to men- tion under oath. The report recommends that Cini should be investigated by the Police Commissioner for possibly lying under oath. In her blog, Daphne Caruana Galizia had made reference to both Torbridge and Chen. In May 2016, she wrote that Tonna had set up a secret offshore company in the BVI - which she names as Torbridge Services Inc - for Chen, whom she described as "one of the Chinese officials who was a key part of nego- tiations in the purchase by Shanghai Electric Power of the Delimara power station and a 33% stake in Enemalta." MACHIN Project proposal was not pursued – Mizzi In a reaction to the information emerg- ing from the full Egrant report, Mizzi said in a press release issued this evening that MACHIN Project was a proposal received by the government, but which was never pursued nor developed, and was declined. He underlined that Sai Mizzi was never ap- proached to work on the proposal. "The Egrant Inc Inquiry report refers to a proposal for a Public Private Partnership received by the Government of Malta in 2014 from a Chinese national who, at the time, worked as a consultant with expertise in commerce and investment from China. This was a proposal for cooperation with the Government of Malta for the creation of an entity to be registered in Malta, which would serve as a catalyst for Chinese inves- tors," Mizzi said. "Government receives several propos- als for investment, some of which take the shape of a cooperation with Government. The proposal mentioned in the Egrant In- quiry report was not pursued, was not de- veloped, and was therefore declined. Sai Mizzi, who, at the time acted as the rep- resentative of Malta Enterprise in China, was not even approached to work on this proposal. "I understand that all relevant information was available to the Inquiring Magistrate. I am satisfied that the Inquiry confirmed that I never had bank accounts at Pilatus Bank, never received funds from Azerbaijan, and never committed money laundering. All al- legations made against me turned out to be false." Labour Party reacts The Labour Party has reacted to Adrian Delia's decision to publish the full Egrant report. In a statement, the PL said that Delia will only prove the fabricated lie by his "friends" in the party, calling the Egrant allegations the "worst political frame up in the country's history". In the statement, the PL also said that Prime Min- ister Joseph Muscat never had an issue with publishing the report, but chose to wait for the conclusion in the case filed by Adrian Delia himself. "The Prime Minister immediately began a pro- cess to see that the report is published without affecting the investigation, while en- suring the protection of de- tails belonging to people who were not related to the case," the statement read. The statement also read that Delia did not want to wait for this process to be seen through, "because he wants to disrupt in- vestigations in order to defend the wrong carried out by the PN, which created and pushed this political frame-up." The PL also said that Delia will be disrupt- ing on-going investigations while preaching for justice. "There will come a time when he will have to shoulder responsibility for his actions," the statement read. Offshore entity set up to control China-Malta investment Karl Cini Sai Mizzi