17 Black inquiry is on the company, and nothing else, Prime Minister insists

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat yesterday insisted that the magisterial inquiry into 17 Black is “on the company and nothing else”, when asked about what, exactly, the inquiry entails.

Muscat said that, as he had done in the past, if there was any political or politically exposed person implicated in criminal activity then he would take the necessary decisions.

The questions follow news revealed by Justice Minister Owen Bonnici, who said in Parliament on Monday that a magisterial inquiry focusing on the once secret Dubai based company 17 Black was opened weeks before new revelations revealed that the company is owned by Tumas Group CEO and Electrogas shareholder and consortium director Yorgen Fenech.

Muscat said that he could not understand the fact that the arguments that his Chief of Staff Keith Schembri should resign because there is an inquiry open have come up now.

He noted that the then Opposition leader Simon Busuttil himself filed a request for an inquiry in court on Keith Schembri himself, and yet nobody had said that because Schembri is being investigated then he should resign.

Now suddenly, he said, because it was shared that there is an investigation demanded by the authorities in an independent manner on “a company” there has been a sudden change of track.

“Let us leave the authorities to do their jobs. If there is any implication against a political person, I, as I have done in the past, will make the necessary decisions,” Muscat said.

Quizzed about the fact that he had, around a year ago, said that Keith Schembri would instantly resign if there was any criminal investigations on him, Muscat reiterated that the information that the government has in hand is that the investigation is “on a company, and not on an individual”.

He also repeated what the Justice Minister Owen Bonnici had said in Parliament - that the government was not initially informed of any specific inquiries into 17 Black.

However, after news reports published last Sunday made reference to the possibility of such an inquiry existing, the Attorney General was contacted and he that an inquiry had been opened exclusively into 17 Black.

The Opposition were those who could talk least about the situation because there are investigations into members of the said opposition, Muscat said, citing an investigation into PN MP Beppe Fenech Adami as an example.