Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1345126
TRUTH IS OF NO COLOUR WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT/COVID19 SUNDAY • 28 FEBRUARY 2021 • ISSUE 113 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY maltatoday How State schools took in growing foreign students PAGES 14-15 The new Maltese RENT REFORM €1.95 Sex work Financial crime investigations PAGE 2 Government announces multi-million spend on hiked pre-1995 rents PAGE 4 Police mull prosecution over Nexia operations Empower women, not pimps, says Stephanie Falzon INTERVIEW MT2 MATTHEW VELLA THE Maltese police are a step closer to prosecute alleged financial crimes com- mitted under the aegis of Nexia BT, the audit company under which Joseph Muscat's former chief of staff Keith Schembri and former minister Konrad Mizzi opened secret offshore companies in Panama. MaltaToday has been told that former Nexia managing partner Brian Tonna will be posting police bail at the Floriana GHQ on Monday at 11am. Charges are expected to be prepared over financial operations carried out at Nexia BT be- fore the audit firm was wound down in 2020. Tonna played a central role in assisting Keith Schembri's offshore business op- erations before and after Labour's 2013 election victory. The Panama companies were later revealed to be connected to 17 Black, a company owned by Tumas mag- nate and Electrogas shareholder Yorgen Fenech. In September 2020, the Criminal Court granted police investigators access to all assets held in financial institutions in the name of Keith Schembri, as well his ex- tended family, in a freezing order to aid money laundering inves- tigations. PAGE 3 Dos Santos fights Malta tax bill MATTHEW VELLA THE Maltese commissioner for reve- nue has slapped a €191,000 tax bill on the company that collected consultan- cy fees on the TV-internet empire until recently controlled by Angolan billion- aire Isabel dos Santos. The tax investigation was launched soon after a data trove published by the International Consortium of Investiga- tive Journalists in January 2020. The exposé followed soon after an Angolan court froze her stake in mobile telecom firm Unitel and in several banks. The daughter of Angola's former long-time dictator built a billion-dollar empire through her control of strate- gic state assets. But after her father stepped down, an a n t i - c o r r u p t i o n drive by Angola's new president, João Lourenço, took Dos Santos head-on.