Brian Tonna reiterates denial: ‘Egrant never received any payments, never held bank accounts’

As a magisterial inquiry is underway to determine whether any members of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s family are the ultimate beneficial owners of offshore company Egrant and whether the Panamanian company ever held any bank accounts with Pilatus Bank, Nexia managing partner Brian Tonna has published Egrant’s share certificates.

After a debate on Friday night between Joseph Muscat and Simon Busuttil, viewers were left none the wiser on who was telling the truth in the whole saga. On Saturday morning, Muscat and Michelle Muscat appeared before Magistrate Aaron Bugeja to testify in the inquiry. So did Muscat’s chief of staff, Keith Schembri. Busuttil has however dismissed the inquiry as “a colossal cover-up”, whilst Daphne Caruana Galizia, who alleges that Michelle Muscat holds shares in Egrant, has listed her own reasons as to why she is refusing to appear before the inquiry.

Late Saturday evening, Tonna issued a press statement and documentation which he insists is proof that he had been the only beneficial owner of the one share representing the whole issued share.

Egrant Inc was incorporated on July 4, 2013. According to Nexia BT, the incorporation of a company in Panama requires two subscribers to sign the articles of incorporation before a notary public. In this case the original subscribers were Dubro Limited S.A. and Aliator S.A.

On July 9, 2013, at a meeting of the Board of Directors, one (1) share was issued in favour of ATC Administrators Inc. As a result, Dubro Limited S.A. and Aliator S.A. ceased to be shareholders in the corporation.

“Whilst it is true that the names of both Dubro Limited S.A. and Aliator S.A. continued to appear on the public register, this does not mean that they remained shareholders after July 9, 2013: they did not. In fact, under Panamanian law, changes in shareholding are not publicly recorded, and so the public register continues to show only the original subscribers,” Tonna said in the press statement.

“Changes in shareholdings are only recorded in the corporation’s internal register, and they are evidenced by share certificates issued to shareholders.”

On August 9, 2013 Tonna acquired the beneficial ownership of the one share representing the whole issued share capital of the corporation. ATC Administrators Inc. remained the shareholder of this one (1) share acting on a fiduciary basis on behalf of Tonna. A declaration of trust, now published by Tonna, was issued bearing the same date.

“It is pertinent to mention that this declaration is signed and bears the registered address of the corporation in Panama.”

Tonna argued that between August 9 2013 and its dissolution, there were no further share transfers or transfers of beneficial ownership.

“As also corroborated with signed declarations by the director of the corporation, Brian Tonna remained the ultimate beneficial owner of the corporation. Signed instructions by Brian Tonna, as the sole and ultimate beneficial owner, were submitted to, and accepted by, the director of Egrant Inc. to initiate the dissolution process on the January 19 2017, which process has now been concluded.

“No other properly signed, authentic documentation exists or ever existed. Further, as previously stated, the corporation never traded, never received any payment and never had any bank account. It follows that no documentation as is being alleged could have been presented to Pilatus Bank or indeed any other bank with the aim of opening a bank account for Egrant Inc as, allegedly, ultimately owned by Mrs Michelle Muscat. For the record, no such documentation was in fact ever presented.”