Before the ICIJ leak: which are the Maltese names already out in the 2013 database?

Here are the offshore companies first leaked to the International Consortium for International Journalists in 2013 in their OffshoreLeaks project.

The ICIJ Offshore Database shows relationships and networks among people or companies and offshore entities. The data are a small part of a cache of 2.5 million leaked offshore files that ICIJ analyzed with a team of 112 reporters in 58 countries for more than 15 months. Stories based on the records have appeared in leading media outlets around the world since April 3, 2013.

Some of these companies have since closed down, but they reveal the names behind entities incorporated in 10 offshore jurisdictions: British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cook Islands, Singapore, Hong Kong, Samoa, Seychelles, Mauritius, Labuan and Malaysia. The information comes from two offshore service firms: Singapore-based Portcullis TrustNet and BVI-based Commonwealth Trust Limited (CTL).

You will find familiar names from the legal and financial services world like PricewaterhouseCoopers senior partner Kevin Valenzia, lawyer Andrew Chetcuti Ganado, Maltese ambassador to China Clifford Borg Marks, or trusted service provider to the Big Four, Exco Services.

All companies with listed addresses in Malta with tax statuses listed in offshore jurisdictions and tax havens

The other Panama company database was set up in 2008 by Daniel O’Huiginn, a British coder, whose project has helped call attention to offshore money in Germany and in France, where an associate of former President Sarkozy was identified as a director of Panamanian companies.

Some familiar names from Malta are also here: some Fenechs from the law firm Fenech & Fenech, associated with the company Timber Trading, which was set up by Mossack Fonseca. Their corporate services firm Fenlex is also associated with Timber Trading and Union Private SA.

A host of firms were also registered for the law firm Dingli & Dingli in senior partner Kevin F. Dingli’s name. They include: Jade Development SA, Emerald Commercial, Bailey Management Inc, Sapphire Assets, Taba Shipping, Lada Shipping, Oblend SA, and others.

There are some old names too, because the database goes back decades.

For example, one of the names which registered a company is the late Brother Hilary Clews, of the Brothers of De La Salle. The companies he registered in 1977 were Xemxija AG and Terranova Developments SA. [correction: we made the mistaken assumption that these could have been related to assets held by the Lasallian brothers in the original post].

Another name from 1981 is Edgar Mizzi. We cannot know for sure if this is the Attorney General who served both Borg Olivier and Mintoff governments, but his name is associated with R&M Oilfield Services.

Another oil company, CBA International Oilfield Services was registered by Mossack Fonseca's Jurgen Mossack himself in 1983: it belongs to directors John Camilleri, John Camilleri jnr, and Charles Camilleri. They were recently indicted in a court case when a Maltese court lifted the corporate veil and ordered them to pay the heirs of one of its employees after they attempted to wriggle out of their responsibility by liquidating the company quickly after an accident in Libya in 1984.

Another is lawyer Louis Camilleri Preziosi, who appears associated with the company Steamship Chartering Corporation.

Is it illegal?

Not always. Today we know that government officials and their families and associates in various countries use covert companies in Panama and the British Virgin Islands and bank accounts to hide their illicit earnings or evade the taxman.

The mega-rich use complex offshore structures to own mansions, yachts, art masterpieces and other assets, gaining tax advantages and anonymity not available to average people.

There is a well-paid industry of accountants and middlemen and lawyers that help their clients cover up their identities business interests, sometimes providing shelter in many cases to money laundering or other misconduct.

But there are legitimate uses for offshore companies and trusts, sometimes to protect family wealth from kleptocratic governments.