Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1497522
NEWS 5 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 19 APRIL 2023 'I do not remember if I instructed Nexia to open Panama company' Keith Schembri at PAC: CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 While Carabott was expected to keep questioning Schembri – who appeared in the PAC with lawyers Edward Gatt and Mark Vassal- lo by his side – on the Electrogas contract for the LNG gas plant at Delimara, it was Nexia BT and his offshore Panama company that were the focus for the committee hearing. Specifically, Schembri was ad- amant in disassociating himself from the actions of Nexia BT on his offshore interests, claiming re- sponsibility only insofar as having wanted an offshore trust – in New Zealand. Schembri, he told the PAC, re- quested his longtime auditors Nexia for an offshore trust in New Zealand. That happened in 2015, he said. But he did not request an offshore company in Panama. "Nexia BT told me soon after that a Commonwealth trust need- ed a corresponding company," Schembri said, but claimed it was Nexia which proceeded – alleged- ly without his consent – to pick shelf companies it had already ac- quired, one of these was Tillgate, and ostensibly, connect it in, again allegedly, unauthorised corre- spondence with Yorgen Fenech's 17 Black, another secret offshore company in Dubai. It was a small game, that Schem- bri tried to play as far as it would take him. Schembri denied having re- quested Nexia to open a Panama company for him. "It had already been acquired by Nexia before," he said, and was then allocated to his request for a New Zealand trust. He denied any connection to Nexia emails authored by partner Karl Cini in his search for a cor- responding bank account for Till- gate, or former energy minister Konrad Mizzi's Hearnville, even though they included Schembri's diplomatic passport. The reason? "The passport was kept by Nexia on file, but I did not authorise that email," he claimed. He even said that emails from Nexia tying 17 Black and Macbridge as 'target clients' of his own Panama company, again were authored without his con- sent, but that he had supplied a list of some 10 companies to Nexia to use... those company names hap- pened to be selected by Nexia. "When we opened the Pana- ma companies, we were told we needed to declare 'x' amount of money as revenue for the busi- ness," he said about the alleged $2 million his business prospects – one of them was a Bangladeshi recycling venture he is active- ly pursuing today – that Nexia cited in its search for a bank for Tillgate. But Schembri again said, the amount was not provided by him. Schembri claimed he was then planning his exit from politics, saying the New Zealand/Panama plan laid the foundations for his future business. But, a planned exit in 2016 was prevented due to the Panama scandal, and then he said three other resignations were refused by his boss, dis- graced prime minister Joseph Muscat. "I gave my resignation four times… I planned to leave in 2016, but then I had to stay on, and the same happened in 2017 right up to 2019." They were explanations he nev- er gave back in April 2016 when the Panama Papers made global news. Back then all he offered were denials right up to the point where he could no longer deny documented proof. On the third, mysterious off- shore company cited in Nexia emails – Egrant, the company Muscat denied was his with a full-blown magisterial inquiry – Schembri was even more cat- egorical. "It never belonged to anyone," he said. When attention turned to Yor- gen Fenech's 17 Black, exasper- atedly Schembri tried to take the focus of the questions elsewhere. "I have been unable, for three years now, unable to access a bank account, credit card, or ef- fect a bank transfer…" It was 17 Black, a company owned by Fenech, that was found to be connected to a Chinese na- tional through offshore company Macbridge, as well as other Aze- ri-owned offshore companies, and then the Panama companies of Schembri and energy minister Konrad Mizzi, that sealed the theory of a secret slush fund from the €200 million Electrogas plant, which Fenech was a shareholder in. "It hurts me that you publish these affairs," Schembri protest- ed with Graham Bencini, a Na- tionalist MP whose profession is in the financial services world, who showed him emails form the Panama Papers trove. Schembri was referring to Daphne Caruana Galizia. "This person once said that I was about to die... and pub- lished my medical records," – a reference to Caruana Galizia's post on Schembri's eye tumour and his subsequent hospitalisa- tion in the United States, a slight that Schembri has been unable to put to rest. When pushed to give clear re- plies, Schembri tried hard to con- fuse – there were enough dates, countries, and names to put up a smokescreen – but when pressed he had to row back on certain claims. On supplying Nexia his own diplomatic passport, natu- rally enough post-2013, he con- ceded it must have been him who supplied it when originally he denied it; and while he confirmed asking Nexia to open his trust, he insists he did not authorise it to open a Panama copany. "That's all," he insisted. "No, I did not authorise the opening of compa- nies in Panama. The trust in New Zealand has got nothing to do with 17 Black." And yet, he seemed at ease not having protested at the time with this allegedly, unauthorised ac- tion by Nexia. "I was told later by Nexia that I needed a company for the trust," refusing to explain why he did not complain at his auditors' apparent zeal in open- ing a Panama company and relat- ed bank account. "The plan was to close the Panama company a year after, once it allowed me to open the trust." And when Schembri he was asked three times by Carabott whether he authorised the open- ing of a related company to the New Zealand trust, not necessar- ily in Panama, he told him: "You are playing with my memory." Nothing wrong in seeking business His only regret, Schembri told MPs mirthfully, was having stayed in politics, but defended his business acumen in seeking out a future for himself beyond his role as chief of staff to Muscat. He said he saw nothing wrong that Konrad Mizzi too was plan- ning his own future, making hay with contacts he made while in politics for later gains. "I saw nothing wrong with that… many people asked me similar ques- tions on this kind of planning. Don't they ever come to ask you that?" Schembri asks Carabott, to which the PAC chairman replied. "No. But you are the one answer- ing the questions here, not me." Indeed, when asked whether it was acceptable to him that a sit- ting minister seeks out additional business income while in office, Schembri said he had no opin- ion on the matter. "When you are born with a business mind, you are always thinking terms of business." PAC chairman Darren Carabott (second from right) interrogating Keith Schembri in a previous sitting