Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/829797
2 maltatoday, TUESDAY, 30 MAY 2017 News Danika Formosa Districts 9 & 10 Luke Caruana Districts 12 & 13 Simon Galea Districts 6 & 12 Christian Mizzi Districts 2 & 3 Arnold Cassola Districts 9 & 10 Ralph Cassar Districts 7 & 11 Marc'Andrea Cassar District 1 Carmel Cacopardo Districts 4 & 11 Mario Mallia Districts 2 & 8 Pascal Aloisio Districts 5 & 8 Districts 2 & 3 THIS IS A PAID ADVERT FIAU probed suspicious activities CONTINUES FROM PAGE 1 Two transactions were said to have been attempted on 10th July, 2015 and finally, a successful one on 23rd July, 2015. Both Mizzi and Schembri have insisted that none of their companies ever traded or set up a bank account, but emails in the Panama Papers show that Nexia BT was searching for several in- ternational banks to open an account for their offshore set- ups. Armada Floating Gas Ser- vices provides the LNG tanker subcontracted by the Electro- Gas consortium, which built Malta's 200MW gas plant. The other details of the FIAU probe suggest further investigation was needed to resolve what it claimed were suspicious activities. Shanghai trip Konrad Mizzi travelled to Shanghai "two days after the incorporation of SEP (Malta) Holding Limited" which was registered on 4 December, 2014. His wife Sai Mizzi Li- ang was already residing in Shanghai at the time, as con- sul for Malta. But the FIAU points out that Mizzi travelled to China 17 times between 10 September, 2013 and 24 March, 2016, a fact gleaned from credit card records. The FIAU pointed out that the card transactions show Mizzi stayed in hotels for 16 visits "despite having family in China". Because of this, the FIAU says "the volume of trips to China at a time when Malta and China were already sign- ing deals in relation to En- emalta raises suspicion." Reasons for offshore set-up In 2015, Karl Cini started to try to set up a bank account for Konrad Mizzi's Hearnville Inc. The FIAU says this is suspicious because the com- pany was originally set up in 2013 and since then placed in a trust. "This sudden per- sistence in opening a bank account for the Panamanian company at significant costs coincides with the time when the required domestic com- pany corporations, deals and agreements in relation to the privatization of the Enemalta Corporation were nearing completion/completed," the FIAU suggests. It then opines that the cost of setting up Hearnville and the Rotorua trust in New Zealand was incompatible with Mizzi's wealth: in 2014 he declared a London house with rental value of £20,000 annually; a Sliema apartment still on mortgage; €310,000 in bank deposits, although the FIAU found only €92,000 in a joint account with Sai Mizzi; 4,000 shares in MIA plc; and in 2015 again in his parliamentary declaration he declared €389,440 in bank de- posits, but the FIAU said this was "not in line with the sums identified in this analysis." The FIAU felt that the costs of setting up and maintaining such a structure "would out- weigh any financial benefit derived solely from the prop- erty in the UK." Mizzi paid €4,839 to BTI Management (a Nexia firm) and $5,235 to set up Rotorua in New Zealand: the FIAU claimed that the €9,700 fees and annual fee for the trust services provider, "show that such a set-up is too costly to justify it being used simply to hold a property in the UK which is expected to gener- ate rental income of approxi- mately GBP20K per year and average bank deposits of €92,000 which are not even held in Dr Mizzi's sole name." The FIAU also suggested that Mizzi "who claims to be a well-off individual" would have opted to create his com- plex offshore structure after the birth of his children in 2007 and 2010 if he "wished to protect his assets for his family's benefit". Dubai travel The FIAU also noted that Konrad Mizzi "personally travelled to Dubai" in order to present a bank with the relevant documentation, and then asks why the house in London was not placed in the trust immediately "rath- er than leaving such a costly structure with no assets". It is not clear whether the bank was Noor Islamic Bank Dubai, the same bank name- dropped in the context of 17 Black – the events are not connected in the FIAU re- port. Torbridge Services Inc. This company was set up by Nexia's Karl Cini for Chi- nese national Cheng Chen, who formed part of a due dili- gence and negotiating team supplied by Accenture, the consulting firm retained by the Chinese government to help Shanghai Electric Power on its Malta deal to acquire a 33% stake in Enemalta. Cheng Chen took ownership of the company in 2014. The FIAU said that Karl Cini delivered documenta- tion on Torbridge to Pilatus Bank personally, and that ini- tial funding in Torbridge's ac- count would start in August 2015 and reach €1 million by the end of the year. "However following initial adverse me- dia reports in February 2016, no such activity ever took place on the account."