FIAU report: MEP David Casa to testify in court on Monday

MEP David Casa will testify in court on Monday on an FIAU report which he claims is damning to tourism minister Konrad Mizzi, who has in turn dismissed the accusations as conjecture and said Casa's obsession with him was 'a sign of insecurity'

MEP David Casa to present evidence in court on Monday
MEP David Casa to present evidence in court on Monday

Nationalist MEP David Casa is to appear before Inquiring Magistrate Aaron Bugeja tomorrow, after his request to present into evidence a leaked FIAU report, was accepted.

Casa claims that the report, compiled by the Financial Investigation and Analysis Unit, contains damning evidence against tourism minister Konrad Mizzi.

Casa expressed his satisfaction with the court’s decision to analyse the FIAU report and said he believes that, “the judiciary is the last remaining hope for the Maltese people.”

“Konrad Mizzi should be nowhere near public office. The staggering amount of information already in the public domain is sufficient to conclude that he’s a crook”, Casa said.

READ ALSO: PN MEP David Casa takes leaked FIAU report to magistrate but refuses to publish it

The report is believed to contain details of schemes, systems, behaviour and participation of corruption and money laundering. Casa will be accompanied by his lawyer Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi. 

Minister dismisses accusations

Mizzi has denounced the accusations as conjecture and, in a second statement issued today, said that Casa’s obsession with him (Mizzi) was a sign of insecurity and was merely intended to mask “Casa’s inefficacy as a politician”.

Casa, Mizzi said, had not made any contribution to the well-being and prosperity of the Maltese, choosing instead to consistently being destructive to Malta’s best interest. 

“He continues to harass me because of tangible achievements, such as Enemalta’s turnaround, resolving the out of stock medicines problem and more recently, bring positive and sustainable change to Air Malta,” the minister said. “Achievements that stemmed from situations created by the very PN administration that Casa was at the very forefront of.”

Five inquiries still to be concluded

Magistrate Bugeja is investigating claims that the Prime Minister's wife – Michelle Muscat – is the owner of a secret offshore company in Panama.

Foreign expertise has since been requested to help examine a number of computer servers – including those elevated from the offices of Pilatus Bank and Nexia BT – in the court’s quest to determine whether the Prime Minister’s wife owns a share in the secret Panamanian company Egant Inc.

Five magisterial inquiries are underway investigating allegations of government corruption following the ICIJ’s explosive leak of documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca in 2016: the inquiry into alleged links between Panama-registered company Egrant and the Prime Minister being held by Magistrate Aaron Bugeja, Magistrate Doreen Clarke's inquiry into the FIAU leak of compliance reports about Pilatus Bank, Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera's inquiry into the leak of a preliminary FIAU report on Pilatus Bank to the then Commissioner of Police Michael Cassar in April 2016, Magistrate Galea Sciberras' inquiry into Keith Schembri and Brian Tonna of Nexia BT and Magistrate Josette Demicoli's inquiry into allegations of money laundering by Keith Schembri and Adrian Hillman through Pilatus Bank.

None have yet been concluded.