Nationalist MEPs: Police chief disrupting Panama investigation into money laundering

Socialist MEP Ana Gomes: ‘Unacceptable that Keith Schembri challenges our legal standing’

Minister Konrad Mizzi
Minister Konrad Mizzi

Nationalist MEPs David Casa, Robert Metsola and Therese Comodini Cachia have said that members of the PANA committee investigating the application of money laundering rules in Malta, had confirmed the suspicion on minister Konrad Mizzi’s offshore set-up was “one of money laundering”.

Mizzi set up a secret offshore company in Panama in 2015 with ownership vested in an offshore trust in New Zealand, whose beneficiaries were his family members.

The MEPs said the chairman of the European Parliament Committee of Inquiry into Money Laundering, Tax Avoidance and Tax Evasion (PANA) Werner Langen was clear in his statement that he viewed the set-up as a case of money laundering.

“Konrad Mizzi went to great lengths to justify his actions with the misplaced sense of self-pity and went so far as to question the objectivity of the committee for asking the questions that everybody is asking and presenting a questionable self-commissioned audit in an effort to exonerate himself – these were poor attempts that were not well-received by the PANA committee,” the MEPs said.

“Our assessment following yesterday’s meetings is that Konrad Mizzi, Keith Schembri and all those involved in the Panama Papers scandal were the subject of an in-depth investigation by the FIAU.”

The MEPs said their suspicion was that following the resignation of police commissioner Michael Cassar, his successor Lawrence Cutajar was refusing to act on the recommendation of the FIAU, to disrupt a potential investigation.

“The role of the Commissioner of Police is to protect the Maltese people and not the Prime Minister and his associates. As the PANA chairman insisted yesterday this situation would not have been tolerated in other democratic countries.”

Socialist MEP Ana Gomes has also taken issue at the Prime Minister’s chief of staff Keith Schembri refusal to attend the PANA hearing, which he accused of lacking legal standing and insisting he was not an elected official.

“It was outrageous to put in question the credibility and impartiality of the inquiry committee. He is clearly identified as someone involved in the Panama Papers, he is the one who has a lot to explain… he is after all the chief of staff of the Prime Minister of Malta, which holds the EU presidency. The allegations against him are serious and have not been responded in any way.”