Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/814533
Newspaper post MATTHEW VELLA MALTA is caught up in an un- folding drama over the identity of the ultimate beneficial owner of a secret Panama offshore com- pany whose name first broke during the Panama Papers rev- elations of April 2016: Egrant. For months thereafter, Egrant was seen as the third, mysterious company formed alongside Kon- rad Mizzi's Hearnville Inc. and Keith Schembri's Tillgate; and Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's decision not to sack his energy minister and chief of staff, let alone the lack of a police inves- tigation into the Panama Papers affair, turned him into the con- venient suspect. The prime minister has always brushed aside the allegations, but matters came to a head last week when Daphne Caruana Galizia, the Malta Independent columnist, published one alle- gation after the other detailing money transfers from the Azer- baijani first family to an account supposedly held in the name of Michelle Muscat – whom she claimed is the beneficial own- er of Egrant. SUNDAY • 23 APRIL 2017 • ISSUE 911 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY "Malta could be a bird lover's tourism paradise if only we stopped killing all the birds " Joseph Muscat has gone all in in a high-stakes poker game of allegations on offshore companies and dirty Azerbaijani money 14 15 PAGE 2 CHRIS PACKHAM AND EUROPE AT THE CROSSROADS SUNDAY • 23 APRIL 2017 • ISSUE 911 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY SUNDAY • 23 APRIL 2017 • ISSUE 911 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY maltatoday YOUR FIRST READ AND FIRST CLICK OF THE DAY WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT 10 11 FRANCE ENDGAME ON PANAMA? Pilatus Bank, Nexia, an Azerbaijani millionaire and a €627,000 loss The Maltese world of finance is a magnet for cash, from every corner of the world PAGE 3 A weekend full of political drama • PAGES 2-4 Muscat claims errors on alleged transcript of declaration, Busuttil wants PM's resignation, Caruana Galizia does not testify in magisterial inquiry • ANALYSIS by James Debono PAGE 3 €1.40