‘Bring it on’: Joseph Muscat goes on the defensive after calls for further Egrant investigation

Former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said on Sunday that he has nothing to hide from investigators looking to probe Egrant further.

Muscat took to Facebook to reiterate the conclusions of a magisterial inquiry into claims that a million-dollar transaction from the Azerbaijani ruling family was passed to Muscat’s wife back in 2018 through the secret company Egrant.

“Neither myself, nor my wife or family have anything to do with Egrant or with any transaction, as already concluded by an independent inquiry,” he wrote. “Someone made us go through hell based on forged signatures, and we were proved right.”

In the Maltese version of his statement, Muscat says that people can investigate as much as they want because his family has nothing to hide.

For the English version, Muscat foregoes a direct translation to simply state “bring it on”.

“I assure everyone that I have nothing against any further steps to put at rest even the slightest doubt that some people seem to be intent in continuing to raise.”

Muscat was reacting to a report by the Times of Malta that a probe into the operations of now-shuttered Pilatus Bank recommended that further investigative steps be taken with regards to the elusive Panama company Egrant.

Maria Efimova, a former Pilatus Bank employee who is now subject to an international arrest warrant, had claimed that $1.01 million was transferred to the company Egrant, further alleging that the company was owned by Michelle Muscat, the wife of Joseph Muscat.

Despite an inquiry discrediting the claim, the report warned that further investigations should take place to verify whether the transaction took place, and recommended that Efimova be interviewed on her initial claims.

Egrant was set up by Nexia BT shortly after the 2013 election. Offshore companies Tillgate and Hearnville, owned by Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi, were set up during the same time period.