Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/791658
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 26 FEBRUARY 2017 13 Analysis his dithering fuels speculation that he was aware of the shady financial dealings of his close associates. One scenario is that Muscat may have found nothing wrong when Mizzi and/ or Schembri informed him of their invest- ments. Therefore he could not later expect either of them to resign after first giving his blessing. Mizzi claims to have first told Muscat of his Panama company three weeks before the scandal broke. When asked whether Mus- cat was shocked, Mizzi's answer was "Why would he be? He would be shocked had I not declared it". Assuming that Mizzi was saying the truth, this suggests that at that point in time Muscat failed to comprehend the ethi- cal impropriety involved in the setting up of a company in a secretive location. Still Muscat is known to change his views after weighing public opinion. Inevitably his unwillingness to sack his closest associates in government has given the Opposition fodder for speculation. 5. 'Muscat is Egrant' IN this case the Opposition's speculation is also rooted in the inevitable suspicion raised by documents unearthed in the Panama leak, which suggest that a third company called Egrant formed by Nexia BT – along with the two other companies formed by Mizzi and Schembri five days after the election – belonged to someone more important than Schembri and Mizzi, given that the owner's details were communicated by Skype. Nexia BT, itself a beneficiary of govern- ment contracts, such as the social impact assessment for the new American Univer- sity of Malta, insists that Egrant remains a shelf company which never had a beneficial owner. Brian Tonna also claims that the Skype call referred to in leaked emails between Mos- sack Fonseca's Panama office and Nexia partner Karl Cini, was not about Egrant. In the email, from March 2013, Cini wrote that "the ultimate beneficial owner will be an in- dividual" and that he will "speak to Luis on Skype to give him more details." Tonna's clarifications on Egrant have not dispelled doubts. As Green MEP Sven Gie- gold observed: "Tonna says he is the ultimate beneficial owner of Egrant, but the indica- tions are that there were other intentions for the company." But despite these doubts it remains hard to believe that Muscat would have taken the risk of lending his name to suspicious transactions. The very suggestion that the Prime Minis- ter himself owned a company in a secretive location belies the high trust rating he still enjoys among the electorate. In fact one may also suspect that the Opposition's main aim in fuelling speculation about Muscat being Egrant's ultimate beneficial owner could be that of denting his trust. Still even if Muscat was in active collu- sion with Schembri and Mizzi, would he have been so stupid as to risk his reputation by lending his name to such a transaction? Even kleptocrats like Vladimir Putin and Ilhem Aliyev have been careful in putting their name to transactions involving close associates and family members. Moreover Muscat is also concerned with how history will remember him. Would he have risked his legacy by colluding is shady financial dealings in secretive locations? But one also has to consider the fact that companies in secretive locations are set up under the impression that their ownership is never revealed and in this case it was only re- vealed because of an unlikely leak. So Mus- cat – like Mizzi and Schembri – may well have thought that nobody would ever know about the opening of companies in Panama. Even if the Prime Minister was not in- volved directly, the perception of a triad in Castille, which operates a government with- in the government, has seeped in and Mus- cat has done very little to address it. Even if the Prime Minister was not involved directly, the perception of a triad in Castille, which operates a government within the government, has seeped in and Muscat has done very little to address it. Clockwise, left to right from top: Manfred Galdes (right), the former director of the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit, who left in 2016 to pursue a private career, but speculation remains over the investigation the FIAU carried out into the Panama Papers; young Greens from Alternattiva Demokratika Zghazagh protest outside the House of Representatives; the PANA committee's chairman Werner Langen (first on the right) hosts a press conference on the day's proceedings; and German Green MEP Sven Giegold (with microphone) gives his views to the press, flanked by Portuguese socialist MEP Ana Gomes, and behind them, Maltese MEPs (PN) David Casa, Therese Comodini Cachia and Roberta Metsola. PHOTOS BY JAMES BIANCHI The Panama Committee comes to town