‘Total invention’: Malta PM dismisses claims of documents linking him to Panama company

There can exist no bona fide document linking him his wife or family to secret accounts or companies, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat insisted today, following reports that a former Pilatus Bank employee had passed on such documents to Members of the European Parliament earlier this week.

In a statement issued this morning, the Office of the Prime Minister said that claims of such an account or company were a “total invention”.

“There can exist no bona fide document on the matter since this is a pure invention,” the statement read.

Maria Efimova was reported to have reiterated her claims that Muscat’s wife was the ultimate beneficiary owner of Egrant, a Panama-based company set up soon after the 2013 general election.

In Strasbourg on Monday, she discussed the issue through video-conferencing with the same MEPs who visited Malta two weeks ago on a fact-finding mission on the state of the rule of law in the country.

The OPM statement noted that if such documents were indeed passed on to the MEPs, this was done without the Prime Minister actually ever being given the chance to see them.

“This goes a long way to explain how this invention has been used for purely political reasons.”

It was to be hoped that said documents had also been handed to the Maltese magistrate leading an investigation into the claims and that the MEPs themselves would now do so as well, “as required by the rule of law”, the OPM said.

“The Prime Minister is certain that these inventions will fall flat when investigations into the matter are concluded,” the statement read, noting that Muscat had repeatedly vowed to resign immediately if any truth in the matter was proven.