Big story on The Malta Independent right now and another one tomorrow, apparently

Michael Falzon, who served as a minister in the cabinets of Eddie Fenech Adami between 1987 and 1992 and again between 1992 and 1996, and who was made chairman of the Water Services Corporation after losing his seat in parliament in the 1998 general election, has just released this statement.

The newspaper in question is The Malta Independent.

Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi had chosen Mr Falzon to sit on the Oil Procurement Committee as an independent, non-voting member. After years of estrangement from the Nationalist Party, Mr Falzon has only recently become involved again, as a member of the PN executive. As a result of this story, he has now resigned from both.

His full statement is beneath. The one piece of crucial information which Mr Falzon does not address, given that he claims to have been in possession of the funds before 1987, is whether he declared this asset – a very substantial sum by the standards of the day – to parliament.

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STATEMENT BY MICHAEL FALZON

Last Wednesday I received a telephone call from a journalist in which I was asked to confirm that I used to have account at HSBC Genève. I had no problem in confirming that this information was correct.

I have reason to believe that this information is going to be published in a Sunday paper tomorrow. In the circumstances I would like to give some background about this account.

Between 1975 and 1985, I was involved with other Maltese professionals in an Architectural and Civil Engineering consultancy providing services abroad. These services were provided under the aegis of a Maltese registered company of which I was shareholder and director.

The first big job that this company worked on had been entrusted to it in partnership with a Swiss architectural firm. This necessitated frequent visits to Switzerland and the opening of bank accounts to which funds were affected by the Swiss partners and eventually to the Maltese company.

When the company was liquidated, and considering the political situation in Malta in 1985-87, I decided to retain a Swiss account in my name.

I want to make it clear that the money came from payments for professional activities abroad for foreign clients that were carried out before I became a Minister in 1987 and that no moneys originating from Malta or from third parties were ever deposited in this account. In fact, I had no other foreign accounts.

In about 2002 I decided to transfer the account to HSBC Genève and some six years later the money was again transferred to another bank. The amount of money in this account was circa £M200,000.

Eventually all the money in the account was repatriated to Malta and today I have no money deposited in any Swiss bank or any other foreign bank whatsoever.

My fiscal position in Malta has long ago been regularised.

Although it is evident that the said account has no connection whatsoever with my past political activities, I have decided to suspend myself for the time being from all the political activities within the structure of the PN. For the time being, I am also withdrawing from my position as observer on the Oil Procurement Committee.

Michael Falzon
21st February 2015