Facing MEPs on CapitalOne, Fenech Adami says he's proud of PN's fight against corruption

The PN deputy leader told the PANA committee that Panamagate has tarnished Malta’s international reputation as a serious financial services centre

Beppe Fenech Adami said that the Nationalist Party is leading the fight against corruption
Beppe Fenech Adami said that the Nationalist Party is leading the fight against corruption

The deputy leader of the Nationalist Party, Beppe Fenech Adami, told MEPs that he was “proud” of the work the opposition was doing in combating corruption in Malta.

Fenech Adami was asked to appear before the PANA committee over his involvement in CapitalOne – a company suspected to have been involved in a case of money laundering. Fenech Adami was a director of Baltimore Fiduciary, which owned CapitalOne.

“The government’s reputation, and more importantly the reputation of Malta as serious financial services centre, have been tarnished,” Fenech Adami told MEPs.

Speaking of Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri, Fenech Adami said the two were very close to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat: “They the gall to start the process to register their Panama companies just a few days after being elected into power in 2013. They were caught when the existence of these companies was revealed in the Panama Papers.”

Mizzi insists that the all documentation showed that he acquired the shell company in 2015.

Fenech Adami said that Malta is the only European country which has a sitting minister “that was caught red-handed with a company in Panama.”

Speaking to MaltaToday after the meeting, an MEP who didn’t wish to be named said Fenech Adami avoided questions related to the CapitalOne case.

“He focused on the government and when asked by MEPs why he hadn’t defended himself over CapitalOne, Fenech Adami insisted that there was ‘no case’,” the MEP said.

Fenech Adami said that the last four years had been littered with corruption scandals.

He said that scandals ranged from “payments of millions of Euro from public funds to bail out private companies close to government”, the “disposal of public land in favour of the Labour Party in Malta,” the employment in public posts of “inner circle friends” as well as “secret trips to Azerbaijan,” the issuance of thousands of visas and residence permits through fraudulent means” and “the illicit payment of millions of euro for unauthorised works in the education sector.”

These scandals notwithstanding, Fenech Adami said that the Panama Papers scandal is “the mother of all corruption cases” and one which “continues to haunt Joseph Muscat’s government till this day.”

Fenech Adami, referring to his own experience in politics, stressed that he has never held an “executive post” in government and that the PN is at the forefront of the fight against corruption.

“We are convinced that come next election, in a few months’ time, the Maltese people will vote this corrupt administration out of power. On my part, I will continue to fight for transparency and good governance,” he concluded.

Former PN minister Ninu Zammit – who had been asked to appear before the Committee after it was revealed he had incorporated a company, Fiveolive Services Inc, through Mossack Fonseca on 23 February 2005 in the British Virgin Islands – did not make an appearance to face the Committee’s questioning.