Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1398274
2 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 1 AUGUST 2021 NEWS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 He admitted regretting the decision to take up the "larg- er than life" business project, claiming failure was not an op- tion given the reputational fall- out he would suffer. But he still conceded that the project had earned him unique business contacts that would "surely pay in future". He also called 17 Black the episode that generated him "huge stress", insisting he had done nothing wrong legally "but I was petrified of the con- sequence on media". Once again proving the close- ness of Keith Schembri to Yor- gen Fenech, the Tumas mag- nate listed the businessman and right-hand man to Joseph Muscat as one of several per- sonalities in his life who were demanding of his time and at- tention. In a telling admission to his wife, Fenech promised to put his family first by cutting down on business and warding off Schembri's advances, as well as "Konrad" – ostensibly, a refer- ence to the former Labour min- ister Konrad Mizzi. "I rejected two projects I was offered," Fenech told his wife, pledging not to have anything to do with government projects anymore. Earlier this week, emails de- posited in court by Matthew Caruana Galizia in the com- pilation of evidence against Fenech, referred to Keith Schembri as "Special K". In February 2017, Daphne Caruana Galizia wrote in her blog about a mystery company in Dubai called 17 Black Limit- ed, alleging it was connected to Maltese politicians, but offer- ing no evidence. Eight months later Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb. In November 2018, Reuters and other media revealed that account records at a bank in Dubai had identi- fied Fenech as the owner of 17 Black, with Fenech as the own- er and signatory of a 17 Black account at Noor Bank in Dubai. Yet Fenech had declined to say whether he owns 17 Black. A week after the Reuters rev- elations, Fenech spoke to his publicist, Chris Mifsud of MPS, and admitted to him the prob- lems he faced over the outing of his name as the owner of 17 Black. Fenech said he was less con- cerned about the effects in Malta, than the impact it would have in terms of overseas due diligence on his companies. This prompted Fenech to en- gage top media lawyer Susan Aslan of ACK Law in London, introduced to him by a top Hilton vice-president, to han- dle the media fall-out. He also claimed Aslan had successfully engaged Amal Clooney, the in- ternational human rights law- yer, as a specialist on the brief – but Fenech admitted having been deflated by the laborious know-your-client (KYC) pro- cedure proposed by Clooney. The ownership of 17 Black has always been significant be- cause of the emails written in December 2015 by accountants Nexia BT, for Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi, the energy minister at the time. The email was discovered by the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit, showing that the secret Panama companies owned by Mizzi and Schembri stood to receive payments from 17 Black for services that were unspecified. The email said the Panama companies expected 17 Black to be a "main target client", with payments of up to $2 million expected within a year. The email made no ref- erence to the gas power station energy scheme and there is no evidence the payments went ahead. In April 2019, Noor Bank closed down the accounts of 17 Black, handing Fenech two cheques totalling 6.1 million dirhams ($1.7 million). The two cheques in his name were the first documented evidence that connected him to the company. Daphne Caruana Galizia was working on a massive leak of documents from the power station consortium at the time of her murder in October 2017. Her son Matthew was collabo- rating with her and helped her set up secure IT systems, stor- ing the data on an encrypted external hard drive for her. The documents – more than 100,000 of them – were sent to her electronically by a source, he told the court last week. mvella@mediatoday.com.mt 'I did nothing wrong legally... but I was petrified of the consequence on media' Thank you... for having bought this newspaper mt The good news is that we're not raising the price of our newspaper We know times are still hard, but we have pledged to keep giving our readers quality news they deserve, without making you pay more for it. So thank you, for making it your MaltaToday Support your favourite newspaper with a special offer on online subscriptions. Visit bit.ly/2X9csmr or scan the QR code Same-day delivery by Miller Distributors is at €1 for orders up to 5 news- papers per address. Email your order, name, address and contact num- ber to production@millermalta.com, and forward cheques payable to Miller Distributors Ltd on address Miller House, Airport Way, Tarxien Road, Luqa LQA1914 Subscribe from €1.15 a week Same-day delivery from Miller Distributors