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MT 9 July 2017

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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 9 JULY 2017 9 News MATTHEW VELLA THE audit firm thrust into the limelight of the Pan- ama Papers – Nexia BT – is paid €10,000 for each successful applicant under the Malta Visa and Resi- dence Programme as official concessionaire for the Middle East. In 2016, Nexia BT was revealed to have set up three offshore Panama companies – one for tourism minister Konrad Mizzi, one for OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri, and a third, Egrant, which is now the subject of a magisterial inquiry after the Prime Minister refused allegations that his wife was its beneficiary owner. But in August 2016, the audit firm – whose manag- ing partner Brian Tonna has close links with Keith Schembri – was made a concessionaire following a public competition launched back in November 2015. The concession was regulated under the Con- cession Review Board regulations, a board set up in 2015 to rule on complaints against concessions granted by ministers to private companies. No appeals were lodged by the competing compa- nies. The Malta Visa and Residence Programme has the same accredited agents as the Individual Investor Programme, Malta's scheme for the sale of citizen- ship, but has different concessionaires. The concessionaires are Shanghai Overseas Exit Entry Services for China, Hong Kong and Macao, Discus Holdings for Russia and Turkey, Henley & Partners for South Africa, and Nexia BT for the Middle East. Henley & Partners is also the concessionaire for the IIP, who are paid 4% on every standard €650,000 application for Maltese passports, and another 4% on the mandatory €150,000 and €350,000 invest- ments in stocks and property as required by the IIP rules. Discus Holdings is also one of the six concession- aires under the Hungarian Residency Bond Program. Nexia BT announced news that it had become a concessionaire on 5 July 2017. An ongoing magisterial inquiry is investigating allegations of kickbacks made by Opposition lead- er Simon Busuttil, that Brian Tonna gave to Keith Schembri over the sale of IIP passports. The claim originates from a preliminary report made by the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit to the police back in 2016, when it suspected that a €100,000 pay- ment from Tonna to Schembri in his Pilatus bank account, was effected soon after Tonna was paid by three successful IIP applicants. The IIP applicants had paid Tonna for his services into his British Virgin Islands company. Tonna and Schembri have denied the allegations, claiming the money was the repayment of a loan Schembri gave to Tonna during the latter's separation proceedings. Concessionaires are paid €10,000 for each suc- cessful application after applicants are subjected to a rigorous, four-tier due diligence process. "The concessionaire has stringent targets to achieve in- cluding significant investments in promoting and marketing the Programme overseas," a spokesper- son for the MVRP told MaltaToday. The application process opened in July 2016, and to date 98 residency cards were issued. The residency and visa programme, launched in 2015, is intended to attract wealthy foreigners to in- vest in Malta in return for a residence permit and visa-free access to the Schengen Zone. It is a sepa- rate scheme from the Individual Investment Pro- gramme, that offers Maltese citizenship to wealthy investors. Applicants must purchase property in Malta worth at least €320,000, or €270,000 if it is in the south of the island or in Gozo. They can instead opt to rent property for a yearly minimum of €12,000, down- scaled to €10,000 if it is in the South or in Gozo. They must also commit to a qualifying investment worth at least €250,000 which must be held for at least five years, pay a €30,000 contribution fee, and file an affidavit proving that their annual income stands at €100,000 or that they hold a minimum capital of €500,000. In a legal notice this week, the government an- nounced some changes to the scheme, including that the €30,000 application fee will now cover the main applicant, spouse and children together. How- ever, applicants will have to pay an additional €5,000 per parent or grandparent included. The previous age limit of 27 for unmarried eco- nomically dependent adult children has been re- moved, meaning that the applicant's children who would have qualified as dependants at application stage will no longer lose their residency rights on their 27th birthday, or if they become economically active or get married. If they marry, they may also be able to add their partner and their direct dependants to the residency scheme for an additional €5,000 fee. Children of residency applicants or their children, born or adopted after the approval date, will be eli- gible for Maltese residency against a €5,000 fee. The requirement for applicants to spend outside of Malta a period of either six consecutive months or an aggregate period of ten months over four years has been removed. Award of Honours and Decorations Malta pays public tribute to Maltese citizens who have distinguished themselves in different walks of life and whose contribution and achievement enrich the general well-being of their fellow countrymen. Any Maltese citizen, a group of persons or a voluntary organisation which is duly enrolled with the Commissioner in terms of the Voluntary Organisation Act may be nominated for the award of an honour on Republic Day. Nominations for 2017 will be received by the Nominations Committee on the prescribed Nomination Form, addressed to the Chairman, Nominations Committee, Office of the Prime Minister, Auberge de Castille, Valletta VLT 2000, by not later than Wednesday, 9 th August 2017. Nomination forms may be collected from the Department of Information, 3, Castille Place, Valletta or downloaded from the website of the Office of the Prime Minister www.opm.gov.mt. For further information, one may contact the Cabinet Office on 22001481. The persons nominated should neither be approached for details, nor informed about their nomination. Firm implicated in Panama Papers scandal in Malta is one of four concessionaires selling Malta Visa and Residence Programme Nexia BT paid €10,000 for each visa application Brian Tonna, Nexia BT managing partner TIM DIACONO THE Nationalist Party has criti- cised Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's decision to employ L- Orizzont editor Josef Caruana (pictured) in an as-yet unspeci- fied deal. The PN in a statement said that Caruana had sowed division when he penned editorials that "ferociously attacked" critics of the Labour government. "Caruana's appointment to a job at Castille proves that Muscat's calls for national unity are noth- ing but empty words put on for show," the PN said. "Muscat has shown that he had completely supported Caruana's editori- als all along, because instead of condemning his behaviour and disassociating himself from him, he has rewarded him with a job at Castille." Caruana told Newsbook on Fri- day that he has been given a new job at Castille, but that he doesn't yet know the details of it. Josef Caruana recently came under fire for penning two edi- torials in the GWU-owned daily newspaper L-Orizzont that called for the resignation of journalists who have criticised the Labour government. He singled out four journal- ists from the Times of Malta and the Malta Independent for "writ- ing false stories and messing up facts…so as to hinder Maltese progress". "As Joseph Muscat said, we must all come together for the sake of national unity, so that Malta becomes the best country in the world," he said. "We cannot achieve this noble aim if we are being weighed down by traitors and the diabolical establishment. "The time has come for recon- ciliation and unity, but before this can happen the cleansing process must begin. That way we can con- tinue heading towards our coun- try's best days." But the General Workers' Un- ion disassociated itself from the two editorials published in its newspaper. Prime Minister Jo- seph Muscat was asked about the editorials at a press conference but responded that he "did not agree with the language used". On that day, the GWU insisted that its newspaper's editorials do not reflect the union's own posi- tions. "The GWU disassociates itself from the editorials that included inappropriate comments against journalists from other media houses," it said. "The GWU has always stressed for the need of unity and is against everything that brings division. "While we understand that newspapers have a right to ex- press their beliefs, one must un- derstand that those expressions are not the official opinions or guidelines of the GWU." PN condemns Muscat's appointment of Orizzont editor

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