SEE HERE: letter from Keith Schembri, PM’s chief of staff, asking Mossack Fonseca to open bank account for undeclared British Virgin Islands company

Colson Services Ltd is a British Virgin Islands company – undeclared to the Maltese authorities – which Keith Schembri set up in 2011.

When he became chief of staff to the Prime Minister in March 2013, Schembri instructed Brian Tonna and Mossack Fonseca to restructure this company for heightened secrecy, using layers of nominees.

In this letter, written in April 2013 when he was already chief of staff to the Prime Minister, Keith Schembri instructs Mossack Fonseca to open a bank account for his secret company in the British Virgin Islands. None of this was declared to the Maltese authorities – it would have defeated the objective of having a company in the BVI, with his ownership hidden by nominees.

At the same time, he was also busy setting up another secret company, this time in Panama, and a trust in New Zealand, and giving instructions to have bank accounts opened for these too.

Schembri laundered hundreds of thousands of euros through the bank account he set up for Colson Services Ltd, his British Virgin Islands company – while he was chief of staff to Prime Minister Muscat.