A death warrant written in black

It was a February evening when newsrooms would have been winding down their operations that Daphne Caruana Galizia ran a cryptic post on her blog.

The post contained no commentary but a single image depicting the faces of Keith Schembri, John Dalli, Joseph Muscat and Konrad Mizzi with the words ’17 Black – Dubai’ beneath them.

The title of this cryptic post flashed out a little bit more: ’17 Black – the name of a company incorporated in Dubai’.

This unusual post uploaded at 6.45pm on 22 February 2017 was most probably when Caruana Galizia’s death warrant was sealed.

But according to Caruana Galizia’s son, Matthew, the journalist got wind of 17 Black and another mysterious company, Macbridge, as far back as April 2016.

Testifying during the first session of the public inquiry last week, Matthew Caruana Galizia said that he heard for the first time about 17 Black and Macbridge in April 2016, at the height of the Panama Papers scandal, when his mother asked him whether he knew anything about them.

Matthew did not know what these companies were – the ICIJ where he worked had not yet received at the time, the second cache of leaked emails from Mossack Fonseca, which contained the reference to 17 Black as a target company for the Panama companies of Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi.

Matthew believes that his mother got her information from a well-placed source who probably had access to the servers of accountancy firm Nexia BT that was being probed by the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit over Panama Papers.

It remains unclear whether by February 2017 Caruana Galizia had the full picture on 17 Black, including who owned it. But she definitely knew that the FIAU and the police commissioner were privy to its existence.

Excerpts of the FIAU investigation were then leaked to The Malta Independent three months later, in the midst of an electoral campaign dominated by the Egrant saga.

It was around this period, before the general election that Tumas Group director and CEO Yorgen Fenech approached his trusted friend, Melvin Theuma, telling him that he wanted to kill Caruana Galizia.

Keith Schembri: using libel actions he attempted to manipulate public opinion on the veracity of the claims connecting his Panama ruse to Labour’s chief electoral promise, the Electrogas power station

In court, Theuma testified that Fenech told him that Caruana Galizia was going to publish information about his uncle, Ray Fenech.

Eventually, Theuma told the court, he felt the information that Yorgen did not want published concerned him rather than his uncle.

Theuma contracted the brothers Alfred and George Degiorgio, and Vince Muscat, to carry out the hit. The murder came with an asking price of €150,000.

But soon after the election was called on 1 May, Fenech asked Theuma to call off the assassination.

The plan was re-activated on the Sunday the election result was out. Yorgen Fenech called Theuma and told him: “Get on with it. I want to kill Daphne.”

The death sentence was reactivated and on that black Monday on the 16 October 2017, Caruana Galizia was blown up in her car as she drove down the road from her house.

It was a year after the assassination that Reuters revealed that Yorgen Fenech was the owner of 17 Black, the target client of the Panama companies opened by Schembri and Mizzi.

Whether Caruana Galizia had Fenech’s name before she was assassinated is unclear. But with Yorgen Fenech’s name in the picture, the chips started to fall in place.

Fenech has been charged with Caruana Galizia’s murder but his motive is unclear, although the fingers all point towards the connection between 17 Black, Yorgan Fenech, a mysterious company and the Electrogas power station.

However, for one journalist it was too late: she paid with her life because she knew too much.

Tumas magnate Yorgen Fenech

17 Black and the murder timeline

April 2016

Daphne Caruana Galizia asks her son, Matthew, whether he knows anything about 17 Black and Macbridge. Matthew believes his mother must have received information from someone who had direct access to the servers of Nexia BT that was being probed by the FIAU over the Panama Papers. Nexia acted as accountant for Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi.

22 February 2017

In a very cryptic post on her blog, Daphne Caruana Galizia pastes the words ‘17 Black Dubai’ below the photos of Keith Schembri, John Dalli, Joseph Muscat and Konrad Mizzi.

27 February 2017

Caruana Galizia elaborates on 17 Black and describes it as “the company which those crooks use to move money in and out of Dubai”.
She also says that the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit and the Police Commissioner know all about 17 Black.

Undisclosed period 2017

Months before the general election, Yorgen Fenech meets Melvin Theuma near the Blue Elephant restaurant in the Hilton, St Julian’s, and asks him whether he knows George Degiorgio because he wanted “to kill Daphne Caruana Galizia”. Fenech says the journalist was going to publish information about his uncle Ray Fenech, chairman of the Tumas Group.

Undisclosed day 2017

A day later, Theuma meets the Degiorgio brothers at the potato shed in Marsa. They ask whether the person commissioning the crime is willing to pay.

Undisclosed day 2017

During a meeting at the Busy Bee in Msida, Alfred Degiorgio tells Theuma that the fee is €150,000, with €30,000 being paid upfront.

Undisclosed day 2017

Yorgen Fenech informs Theuma he will be receiving a phone call from Sandro Craus from the Office of the Prime Minister. Craus arranges a meeting at Castille between Theuma and Keith Schembri. This is when the photo between Theuma and Schembri is taken. Schembri leaves it up to Craus to find Theuma a government job.

1 May 2017

Prime Minister calls general election. Records show that Melvin Theuma starts his phantom job with the government for which he receives three or four pay cheques before the money stops after the June election.

May 2017

On an undisclosed day after the election announcement, Yorgen Fenech calls Melvin Theuma and asks him to tell the Degiorgios to “stop everything”. The murder plans are aborted.

26 May 2017

The Malta Independent publishes a story claiming that an investigation by the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit showed how a Dubai-based company identified as 17 Black had received money from the agent of the LNG tanker at Delimara. The leaked report alleged that 17 Black had to transfer the cash to the accounts of two Panama companies set up by Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi. The FIAU report is not a finalised version and the agency continues working on the case.

Melvin Theuma revealed the extent of the intimacy between Fenech and Schembri and the fact that Schembri was informing Fenech of the investigation into the assassination

3 June 2017

Malta goes to the polls after an acrimonious electoral campaign in which corruption takes centre stage.

4 June 2017

The election result is out and the PL wins by an even bigger majority. Yorgen Fenech calls Melvin Theuma and tells him: “Get on with it. I want to kill Daphne.”

June 2017

Melvin Theuma drives Yorgen Fenech to the airport. During this trip, Fenech passes on a brown envelope with €150,000 for the assassination.

Summer 2017

Yorgen Fenech pesters Melvin Theuma repeatedly to get the assassination over with because he feared that Caruana Galizia was going to publish the information. Theuma gets the feeling that the information concerned Yorgen rather than his uncle Ray Fenech.

16 October 2017

Daphne Caruana Galizia is assassinated with a powerful car bomb. Government immediately ropes in the American FBI and Europol to help with the investigation.

Around 29 November 2017

Melvin Theuma says that around this date, the Degiorgio brothers and Vince Muscat are tipped off about a massive police raid that is to happen around the 5 December. Theuma says Yorgen Fenech got to know of the raid.

4 December 2017

A massive police raid on the Marsa potato shed leads to the arrest of the George Degiorgio, Alfred Degiorgio and Vince Muscat. Seven other men, including the Maksar brothers, Adrian and Robert Agius, are arrested but later released.

18 April 2018

The Daphne Project reveals that 17 Black and a second company, Macbridge, were listed as a “target clients” of the Panama companies opened for Mizzi and Schembri. The Prime Minister’s chief-of-staff releases a press statement admitting his company Tillgate had drafted business plans with 17 Black and Macbridge but nothing ever came out of them. He also denies any knowledge of money transfers.

This is the first time Schembri admits his linkage with 17 Black. Mizzi sticks to his guns, insisting he has no knowledge of 17 Black.
The Daphne Project also reveals that the Maltese FIAU traced two payments to 17 Black totalling $1.6 million, one of which was from a Seychelles company called Mayor Trans owned by an innocuous Azerbaijani national.

9 November 2018

Reuters reveals that the owner of 17 Black is Tumas Group CEO Yorgen Fenech and the company has an account at Noor Bank in Dubai. Reuters says that an FIAU report identifying Fenech as 17 Black’s owner was sent to the police in the spring of 2018 for a money-laundering investigation.

20 November 2019

Yorgen Fenech is arrested on his yacht as he tries leaving from the Portomaso Marina. He is taken in for questioning and is identified as a “person of interest” in the Caruana Galizia murder investigation.