Schembri was listed as Yorgen Fenech’s ‘next of kin’ in Houston cocaine arrest

Yorgen Fenech had listed Keith Schembri, the former chief of staff to disgraced prime minister Joseph Muscat, as a next of kin of sorts, as shown in an arrest report by the Houston Police when he was charged with cocaine possession inside the United States. 

Fenech was sentenced to 30 days’ in county jail in July 2019, after being caught in possession of 8.43 grammes of cocaine at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, when he flew in from London.

Police had been alerted by airline staff that a passenger had noticed that Fenech had snorted cocaine inside the airline lavatory. 

Fenech told the police officers who intercepted him at the airport that his purpose for travel was to attend a “stress therapy”. Then, after further questioning, Fenech told the officers that he was attending a rehabilitation programme for substance abuse. 

Officers found two ziplock bags in his luggage, containing the cocaine, which had been concealed within a plastic earbud wrapper. 

The officers said that Fenech had clearly admitted that the cocaine was his and that he had purchased it in London, before his travel. 

In the Houston Police Department report, the name of Keith Schembri. was listed under the heading of “Relationship - Friend”, no doubt a confirmation of the long friendship between the 17 Black owner and the then-PM’s chief of staff. It is unclear why Fenech listed Schembri in the report.

The document was obtained by the Daphne Foundation in a Freedom Of Information request.

Fenech pleaded guilty in a Harris County court. After his arrest on 15 July, Fenech was granted bail at $10,000, later set to $7,500 on request of his public defender. On 16 July, he was committed to the custody of the Sheriff of Harris County, Houston, until he posted the required bond. 

He was released under court order and committed to Sierra Tuscon Hospital, a treatment centre for drug and alcohol addiction. 

On 29 July, the court sentenced Fenech to serve 30 days in Harris County Jail. Following a guilty plea, the judge set aside the order of judgement. On 5 August, Fenech had his luggage returned.

Schembri-Fenech relationship and 17 Black

Schembri set up secret Panama offshore companies in 2013 upon Labour’s election to power, with papers leaked in the Panama Papers of 2016 showing that his handlers Nexia BT had listed a Dubai company, 17 Black, as one of his target clients. 

In November 2018, Reuters obtained information that Electrogas shareholder Yorgen Fenech was the owner of the Dubai company. 

This means that Mizzi’s and Schembri’s companies had to receive money from a Dubai-based firm owned by one of the shareholders in the gas power station consortium – a key Labour plank in the 2013 elections. 

Tumas magnate Yorgen Fenech

The name 17 Black was made public for the first time sometime in February 2017 when Daphne Caruana Galizia put up a cryptic blog depicting the words ‘17 Black’ and photos of Joseph Muscat, Keith Schembri, John Dalli and Konrad Mizzi. 

The next time it was mentioned was by The Malta Independent in May 2017 when it published excerpts from a leaked Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit report that indicated the company 17 Black as having received funds from the Maltese agent of the gas tanker supplying fuel to the new power station. 

But in April 2018 the Daphne Project revealed the documents that showed how 17 Black was one of two target clients of Tillgate and Hearnville. Keith Schembri had released a statement in which he confirmed that 17 Black had been included as part of a business plan for his Panama company but nothing ever came of the plans. Schembri never clarified what the nature of the business with 17 Black was and who its owners were. 

Additionally, a money trail 17 Black to Enemalta’s purchase of a Montenegrin wind farm in 2015. The joint investigation by Reuters and Times of Malta shows that 17 Black made a previously undisclosed profit of €4.6 million when Malta’s state energy company, Enemalta, bought a wind farm in Montenegro. The Dubai firm was used for a loan to finance the €10.3 million acquisiton, more than three times the original price tag, through a Seychelles-registered company called Cifidex.