Daphne Caruana Galizia got to know of 17 Black in April 2016 as FIAU probed Nexia over Panama Papers

Public inquiry hears how the slain journalist was asking about the secretive company 17 Black a full nine months before she first mentioned it

Matthew Caruana Galizia
Matthew Caruana Galizia

At the height of the Panama Papers scandal in April 2016, Daphne Caruana Galizia already knew of the existence of 17 Black and Macbridge, a public inquiry heard.

The revelation was made by her son, Matthew Caruana Galizia, when testifying in front of the public inquiry into the journalist’s murder. The inquiry started hearing witnesses on Friday.

Matthew told the inquiry that in April 2016 his mother had asked him whether he knew anything about 17 Black Ltd and Macbridge Ltd.

This was the first time, Matthew heard of the companies.

“I replied that I did not, which at the time was the truth. At the time, ICIJ, where I worked, had not yet obtained the second portion of the Panama Papers leak containing the email from Karl Cini of Nexia BT that specifies 17 Black and Macbridge as ‘target clients’ of Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi’s Panama shell companies,” Matthew said.

He added that at the time, the only way his mother could have known about those two companies was through a source “with direct access to emails on Nexia BT’s servers”.

Matthew told the inquiry that at the time, Nexia BT was being subjected to some form of compliance review or investigation by the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit.

“[The FIAU] would have requested that Karl Cini, the money laundering reporting officer, disclose emails relevant to the FIAU’s investigation. This evidence, gathered by the FIAU, was shared with then Economic Crimes Unit Superintendent Ian Abdilla, who is known to actively communicate and exchange information with Keith Schembri, and to leak information to journalists that is intended to cause damage to Schembri’s perceived enemies,” Matthew testified.

Crucial date

April 2016 is a crucial date because the implication is that the FIAU and subsequently the police may have known of the full set up of Keith Schembri’s and Konrad Mizzi’s Panama companies, including who their target clients were.

Nonetheless, no police action appears to have been taken to determine whether the 17 Black link could have been a vehicle for proceeds from corruption concerning the new gas power station.

The first public reference to 17 Black on Caruana Galizia’s blog was February 2017 when she put up a cryptic post that contained no text but a photo of Keith Schembri, Konrad Mizzi, John Dalli and Joseph Muscat with 17 Black written beneath them.

Eventually, during the 2017 electoral campaign, a leaked draft FIAU report had indicated 17 Black and Macbridge as target clients for Mizzi and Schembri but no mention was made of Yorgen Fenech.

The information got lost in the fog of the electoral campaign and it was in November 2018 that Reuters revealed that 17 Black belonged to Fenech.

Police economic crimes unit reluctant to press charges

Matthew told the inquiry that the testimony of Melvin Theuma and Yorgen Fenech, and evidence collected by the police, pointed towards one logical conclusion: “If my mother was murdered to prevent her from publishing evidence that was already in the hands of, or that would have eventually come into the hands of, Ian Abdilla and the FIAU, then Fenech must have been absolutely certain that Ian Abdilla would never press charges against him, or even conduct a full investigation, based on that same evidence.”

Matthew told the inquiry that Abdilla would probably argue in his defence that the evidence was not enough to press charges.

“Yet why would evidence that’s damning enough for the suspect to commit murder not be damning enough for the police to press charges?”

Matthew also questioned why accountants Brian Tonna and Karl Cini from Nexia BT, who knew all about this secretive set up, still licensed accountants.

“Because the police or attorney general never charged Yorgen Fenech, Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri with multiple money laundering and corruption offences which they had solid evidence of, my mother was assassinated to prevent her from desperately trying to plug the gaping hole in our country left by the police. Even after she was murdered, the police left Keith Schembri free to derail the murder investigation and cover up the crime,” Matthew said.

Melvin Theuma, the middleman who was given a presidential pardon to tell all about the murder, has testified that it was in the months before the general election that Fenech asked him to hire assassins to kill Caruana Galizia.

Fenech allegedly told Theuma that he feared the journalist would reveal information about his uncle Ray Fenech.

However, Theuma said that as time passed by, he understood that the information Yorgen Fenech was fearful of probably concerned him and not his uncle.