Instead of a war of words, how about a war of facts?

Instead of engaging in a puerile war of words with an Opposition politician, perhaps Minister Konrad Mizzi should engage in a war of facts on what is or what is not contained in those infamous draft Financial Intelligence Analysis reports.

Why not, for example, invite the politician who is levelling manifold accusations against him, MEP David Casa, to sit down around a table and thrash out the facts contained in the draft report that, for one reason or another, never reached formal investigation stage.

But instead of facts, Mizzi seems to prefer trading insults, as reported in today’s issue.

This newspaper is informed that the report in question, which Casa will present to a magistrate tomorrow morning, deals with suspected kickbacks from the sale of Enemalta and the commissioning of the LNG tanker fuelling the new power station in Marsaxlokk.

Last year, this newspaper exclusively reported the gist of those reports. Here is what they say in a nutshell, not in our words but in the words of the report itself.

First, the Enemalta privatisation. The draft FIAU report that seems to have been summarily buried, involves Mizzi and Cheng Chen, an engineer for Shanghai Electric Power, the company which acquired a €320 million stake in the ailing national energy corporation to gain a foothold in the European renewables market.

The kickbacks are suspected to have been planned for Mizzi and Chen through their respective companies in Panama and the British Virgin Islands.

In its report, the FIAU said that, “In the basis of information obtained through Dr Konrad Mizzi’s credit card activity, Dr Mizzi travelled to China 17 times during the period 10/09/2013 to 24/03/2016. It was noted that despite having family in China he stayed in hotels for at least 16 of these trips. This fact combined with the use of his official [credit] card indicates that these trips to China were State-related visits. It was also noted that no transactions were noted on Mr Mizzi’s accounts in relation to the purchase of flight tickets. The volume of trips to China at a time when Malta and China were already signing deals in relation to Enemalta raises suspicion.”

The suspicions the FIAU held of kickbacks came about after investigations appeared to show that several attempts were made by Mizzi’s accountants to open a bank account close to the date of Enemalta’s privatisation.

While Mizzi continued to deny that bank accounts were opened for his Panamanian company to transfer commissions, the FIAU report leaked to this newsroom stated that, “Email correspondence shows sudden and persistent attempts in setting up a bank account for Hearnville Inc during 2015. This was deemed suspicious given that the company had been incorporated since 2013 and the only measures taken since then were to have the company placed under trust. This sudden persistence in opening a bank account for the Panamanian company at significant costs coincides with the time when the required domestic company corporations, deals and agreements in relation to the privatisation of the Enemalta Corporation were nearing completion/completed.”

Mizzi’s claims that he “did not sign any bank opening forms, nor did I give a Power of Attorney to the service provider to open an account” are not in line with the Power of Attorney he signed on 16 June 2015 in which he granted absolute discretionary powers to his accountants, the report said.

In its investigation, the FIAU noted that “The fact that the costs associated with setting up a structure involving a Panamanian company which is held under trust in New Zealand are not justified when one takes into consideration the fact that Dr Mizzi’s 2014 declaration of assets.”

In addition, the FIAU said in its report that during the attempts to set up bank accounts for his Panamanian company, Mizzi personally travelled to Dubai in order to present the bank with the relevant documentation.

The FIAU report states that the fact that Mizzi, who claims to be a well-off individual looking to safeguard his assets, opted to set up a complex structure shortly after he was appointed as a government minister, a role which carried a financial package that was significantly less than his previous employment needs to be explained by Dr Mizzi.

The FIAU says in its report: “The fact that the set-up of these structures also coincided with the time when the Government was entering into numerous agreements directly concerning Mizzi’s ministry is suspicious given that, in the event that Mizzi wished to protect his assets for his family’s benefit, it would have been logical to do so shortly after the birth of his children in 2007 and 2010.”

This newsroom revealed other parts of the FIAU report which confirm the transfer of money from a company connected to Armada Floating Gas Services Malta, owners of the LNG tanker berthed in Marsaxlokk, to a Dubai-based company, 17 Black, created for the purpose of transferring kickbacks to then Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi and the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff Keith Schembri. The FIAU report categorically states that “a transaction was carried out successfully on 23 July 2015”.

So if they are completely false and were merely written to be leaked as the government insists, sit down and thrash out all the facts. The issue has gone way beyond partisan politics and it is a national calamity either way when this business pans out in the end.

These matters are, after all, in the public domain after they were published by this newspaper last year, but so far Mizzi has not replied to the allegations point by point. Perhaps he could do so with Casa, or short of that, this newspaper would be more than happy to carry out such an exercise with him – the invitation remains open. For the long read, here are the links to both articles: http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2017-05-26/localnews/EXCLUSIVE-Proof-of-kickbacks-to-Mizzi-and-Schembrifrom-LNG-tanker-FIAU-6736174749

http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2017-05-28/localnews/EXCLUSIVE-Kickbacks-over-Enemalta-privatisationprobed-by-the-FIAU-6736174789