Company representatives testify in passport kickbacks inquiry

Dozens of representatives from various companies were yesterday summoned to court to testify in the case regarding alleged kickbacks from the sale of citizenship by the Prime Minister’s chief of staff Keith Schembri and Nexia BT director Brian Tonna.

The hearing, presided over by Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras, is not open to the public or the press. The inquiry was launched after a previous court had ruled that there were sufficient grounds for an investigation to be launched. It was Magistrate Aaron Bugeja who gave this ruling, the same magistrate who is now conducting a separate inquiry into offshore companies in Panama, in particular the Egrant company.

Keith Schembri and Minister Konrad Mizzi were named in the Panama Papers leak back in February 2016. The two were confirmed to have opened companies in Panama.

A Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) report that was leaked shortly before the general election concluded that there was “reasonable suspicion” that Schembri received kickbacks from Nexia BT’s Brian Tonna in relation to Malta’s passport scheme.

The Prime Minister’s chief of staff was also named in another FIAU report that found reasonable suspicion that he was involved in money laundering after he transferred hundreds of thousands of euros to the thenmanaging director of the Allied Group, Adrian Hillman.

A third, unfinished report said there was reasonable suspicion that Schembri and Konrad Mizzi had received kickbacks from the LNG tanker deal.

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil had presented the documents in court and requested magisterial inquiries. None of the inquiries have been concluded so far.