Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1495870
3 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 29 MARCH 2023 NEWS 'No!' Keith Schembri insists he does not know identity of Egrant owner CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Nowhere was it more apparent in the way he brushed off the questions on eth- ics about his now infamous Panama off- shore companies. It was, he insisted, the only way he could evade a repeat of a leak on his Bank of Valletta trust to the Oppo- sition. The only solution, he insisted, had been a New Zealand trust, which owned a Panama company. But it was a coincidence, he insisted, that energy minister Konrad Mizzi had opened the exact same company structure at the same time. It was a coincidence, he add- ed, that he had chosen his private audi- tors Nexia BT. "Mizzi claimed everything I touched turned to gold," Schembri told PAC chairman Darren Carabott And it was also a coincidence that Nex- ia BT's men – Brian Tonna and Karl Cini – had been handpicked to be in the Deli- mara gas plant evaluation committee that eventually selected Electrogas, the com- pany whose shareholders included the Tumas Group and Yorgen Fenech, the owner of 17 Black, a secret Dubai offshore company Schembri said he planned to do business with after his exit from politics. In fact, Schembri told the PAC he had in- formed Joseph Muscat about what was 17 Black, the secret that dogged Maltese pol- itics from the moment Daphne Caruana Galizia posted the quizzical graphic on her website. But neither Muscat nor Schembri ever owned up to the facts until their ex- posé by the Daphne Project in 2018. "It was run of the mill," Schembri said of his offshore companies. "It made no difference to me. I started opening off- shore companies when my BOV trust was leaked to the Nationalist Party. BOV chairman John Cassar White then told me that he could not guarantee that the information was not leaked from the bank. I reported as much to the prime minister. And that is why I opened a trust in New Zealand." Schembri now complained that his de- parture from politics has overshadowed his business fortunes. "It is ok to be a Nationalist... you can do business," he quipped at the MPs. But, typically for Schembri, he saw no conflict of interest in knowing that his own auditors Nexia BT were such a cen- tral part of decision-making matters on major government projects such as the Delimara gas plant. "I only got to know after that they were in the evaluation committee... next time we should have appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers... I had no conflict." And did he know then who the owner of that mysterious, third Panama offshore company created by Nexia BT – Egrant – was? No, Schembri replied. Schembri denies all Keith Schembri introduced himself to the PAC as one of the men who told Jo- seph Muscat to run for Labour leader, helping him get elected in 2013. "And the rest is history," he added. Schembri defended Labour's key policy plank to reduce energy bills by 25%, say- ing the party's election strategy was based on surveys showing the top concerns of voters. He said he had not been lobbied by the Tumas Group or other private companies on the gas plant, and that an energy work- ing committee he chaired for the party in 2008 had only met twice. The Nationalist MPs wanted to learn how deep Schembri's relationship to Yor- gen Fenech, the alleged mastermind in the Caruana Galizia assassination was. Schembri insists he had resumed his friendship with Fenech, whom he had known since the age of 9, only after ten- dering on the gas plant had started. Before 2013, he denied that Labour had been lobbied on a gas plant or the switchover from heavy fuel oil to gas; de- nied knowing of a confidential agreement with Energy World in 2011 to advise the prospected Labour administration on en- ergy; and defended himself from reports on Labour talks with a foreign company by saying that the third parties had been eliminated from the tendering process. Schembri also insisted he was not in- volved in any decisions pertaining to the Electrogas tender, meeting only once Enemalta representatives when both en- ergy minister Konrad Mizzi and the per- manent secretary were unavailable, some time after the tender could have been awarded. Electrogas shareholder Yorgen Fenech was in attendance. He said he was no troubleshooter. "Elec- trogas was well served ('moqdijin') by minister Konrad Mizzi. Everybody knows it was a difficult job to do." He denied having had in his possession any information related to the tender, and pushed back against the judgement of the Caruana Galizia public inquiry that made him out to have a free hand in de- cision-making. "I disagree," he said, pro- testing his treatment at the hands of the press as the power behind the throne. Schembri insisted he was unaware of the Delimara gas plant winners before their announcement, and revealed he had been unofficially lobbied by a German ambassador at the United Nations about Siemens angling for the contract. He said he had been requested to treat the com- pany with fairness. Schembri added that it was normal for foreign representatives to lobby on behalf of their co-national companies. "Let me give you an example: the Maltese government lobbies on behalf of its companies with foreign ministers." Schembri insists that the Fenech family (Tumas) never mentioned any interest in a power plant before 2013 with him. "My personal opinion was that the late George Fenech would not have even ventured in- to it." Summoned to the PAC Keith Schembri will be returning to the PAC on Tuesday 18 April, at 2pm. Government MPs did not oppose the request originally to have him attend the PAC, with Schembri and his secret rela- tionship to Electrogas shareholder Yor- gen Fenech, having been at the heart of the scandals that rocked the Muscat ad- ministration: from offshore Panama com- panies, the 17 Black company in Dubai, as well as the messages exchanged between the two during the investigation of the Caruana Galizia assassination. Schembri is facing ongoing criminal proceedings over charges of money laun- dering unrelated to the Electrogas tender. He has pled not guilty. Chaired by Nationalist MP Darren Car- abott, the PAC is probing the findings of the National Audit Office's investigation on the Electrogas contract, concluded in 2018. PN MPs Darren Carabott (left), who chairs the PAC, and David Agius following Keith Schembri's testimony in the House committee