Giglio had reservations about ‘malevolent’ Egrant whistleblower Maria Efimova

The Nationalist Party’s new home affairs spokesperson Joe Giglio – a one-time lawyer to the shuttered Pilatus Bank – has declared having “serious reservations” on the credibility of Maria Efimova, a former bank employee who famously told assassinated journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia that the Panama company Egrant belonged to former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s spouse.

Giglio told Andrew Azzopardi on Malta’s Heart this morning, that the Russian whistleblower, who never provided evidence of her claims in a magisterial inquiry, that he knew her as “a malevolent woman capable of getting herself into certain situations... I had said back then that if the documents did exist, then no one would be able to see them but her.”

Giglio had served Pilatus Bank when Efimova was accused of using the company credit card to organise a training trip to Frankfurt, which she used to book herself a room and for her husband and child.

Maria Efimova

The bank filed a police report, and Efimova rebutted by claiming she had not been paid her wages. Giglio insisted Efimova had defrauded the bank, and even dismissed her claims of abuse by police officers.

Giglio said he had reservations about Efimova’s claim that she was in possession of documents linking Egrant to Muscat. “Backed as I was by crystal clear evidence that her claims that the bank hadn’t paid her were inaccurate I had known Efimova as a person who can manipulate facts. However, I had hoped that perhaps she was telling the truth on the [Egrant] issue.”

A magisterial inquiry in 2018 disproved Efimova’s claims linking Egrant to Muscat, finding contradictions in Efimova’s and Daphne Caruana Galizia’s testimonies, and falsified signatures in alleged declarations of trust that were handed to him by then Malta Independent editor-in-chief Pierre Portelli. 

Efimova is charged with perjury, but an EAW for her extradition was unsuccessful. Giglio dismissed her suggestions that she doesn’t want to return to Malta out of concern for her safety, but said she should be allowed to testify virtually in Muscat’s libel case.

Reactions to Joe Giglio’s statements came from fellow MP Karol Aquilina, whose brother Robert is president of anti-corruption NGO Repubblika, which has kept the memory of Caruana Galizia alive in its regular vigils. “Undermining the credibility of the Egrant whistleblower is not only highly irresponsible but also an insult to the memory of courageous journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia and activists who have been fighting relentlessly for truth and justice.”

Nationalist MEP David Casa, who publicly took up Efimova’s case and visited her in Greece when she imprisoned on the strength of the Maltese EWA, did not refer to Giglio but hit out at his former clients Pilatus Bank. “Those fighting for truth and justice were insulted, ridiculed and even threatened because they stood up for what they believed in. Pilatus Bank remains a symbol of sheer corruption and a laundromat for illicit funds which destroyed Malta’s reputation.”