Pierre Portelli hands over extracts of FIAU report to Magistrate

The Malta Independent's content director Pierre Portelli has testified before the inquiry led by magistrate Aaron Bugeja today, for the second time, handing the inquiy extracts of an FIAU report that as yet, remains unfinished..

Speaking to reporters after his court appearance, the content director explained that the magistrate's terms of reference in the inquiry “were not only into Egrant but extended beyond whether the Prime Minister or members of his family or Keith Schembri had bank accounts in Pilatus bank...were involved in suspicious transactions involving Pilatus bank.”

Portelli also passed on extracts of the report to media houses.

“The FIAU report had indicated that transactions had taken place in Schembri's and Mizzi's companies and mentioned the CEO of Pilatus Bank. It mentioned that Karl Cini of Nexia BT had passed on an envelope to the CEO of Pilatus Bank.”

The report notes that it was not normal for CEOs to open bank accounts.

This fact made it relevant to the magisterial inquiry, said Portelli, but the decision on whether to use the information in the Egrant inquiry or to appoint a separate inquiry, was up to the magistrate.

Portelli added that his source had passed on further information to him during a conversation, that the newspaper had decided not to publish at this stage.

This was because this information was passed on verbally and there were no documents to support it. Instead, Portelli said, he had opted to pass it on to the magistrate to process as he saw fit. “Given the circumstances, I don't think it would be beneficial at this stage to be placed for public consumption, not least because it is not part of a report. This was said to me and I felt I should pass it on to the magistrate for him to decide on the relevance himself.”

Portelli added that yesterday Konrad Mizzi had reacted to a FIAU press statement that he said, confirmed the Independent's reports of kickbacks over the LNG tanker and suspicions of kickbacks.

Mizzi had yesterday tried to raise doubts about the existence of the report by spinning a two-line statement issued on Friday night by the FIAU, which Portelli argued, actually confirmed the information published in the newspaper.

Portelli said that in a long statement issued yesterday by Konrad Mizzi, it was hinted that a report did not exist – Mizzi’s statement quoted an FIAU statement that there was no conclusive report on the matter, as well as the facts being alleged by the newspaper.

Portelli said that the decision to publish the extracts of the FIAU report was in light of this apparent denial. “As fellow journalists you know how hurtful it is when a public official tries to discredit you by saying you are not telling the truth and this is why I circulating report to you, to allow you to decide on what you would like to continue to report.”