Brian Tonna stops short of saying who suggested Macbridge and 17 Black as target clients for Mizzi and Schembri

Nexia BT partner Brian Tonna would not say who indicated to him to include Macbridge and 17 Black as target clients for the Panama companies he set up for Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri.

Tonna was testifying in parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that is probing a National Audit Office report on the Electrogas power station contract.

Tonna excluded it was Mizzi who suggested Macbridge and 17 Black as target companies and when it was suggested by Opposition members on the PAC whether it was Schembri, he refused to answer, stating he had a sub-judice case with him.

Journalistic investigations have revealed that Macbridge is owned by a relative of Cheng Chen, a Chinese national who brokered the part-sale of Enemalta shares to Shanghai Electric Power, and 17 Black is owned by Daphne Caruana Galizia murder suspect Yorgen Fenech.

On work he did for Fenech, Tonna said that he had carried out an audit for New Energy which is a shareholder of GEM Holdings - the Maltese consortium that forms part of Electrogas. He also had carried out IT audits for a number of companies.

On Cheng Chen, Tonna said he was approached by him to open an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands.

Assassinated journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia first broke the story of Cheng Chen's BVI company in May 2016 on her blog.

Tonna said that he had spoken with Cheng Chen at the Nexia BT offices twice, but held back from saying who had referred the Chinese national to him. The company set up for Cheng was named Torbridge.

When asked by Opposition committee members, Tonna said that he did not know that Cheng was involved in the Electrogas project.

Tonna was also asked on how former minister Konrad Mizzi had approached him to set up a trust.

“He told me he wanted to open a trust. The first suggestion was that we open it in Malta, but when we spoke to Mossack Fonseca, they suggested New Zealand,” Tonna said. “My first work with the minister was to introduce him to Mossack Fonseca.”

He also said that he had never given him any financial services before the 2013 general election.

Asked if he had met with Labour Party officials before the 2013 general election, Tonna said that he had “informal meetings” with former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and his chief of staff Keith Schembri.

“From what I can remember, he had asked me what I thought of the MFSA chairman at the time,” he said, when asked what he had discussed with Muscat.

Tonna was also asked on his role and Nexia BT’s role in the Electrogas project committees. He was part of the project’s adjudicating committee: “I was roped in by Enemalta.”

Last week, Tonna had refused to answer any questions put forward by the PAC, on the basis of one's right to silence. In a ruling earlier this week, Speaker Anglu Farrugia has said that he had a right not to answer if the matter being probed is subject to judicial proceedings or he felt it could incriminate him.