Comments on: Door-stepped Muscat says he “has no problem” with Konrad Mizzi’s New Zealand trust

By: U Le!

U Le! — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 21:08:00 +0000

I am seeing multiple furrows.

By: Tabatha_White

Tabatha_White — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 21:01:00 +0000

There’s Muscat’s other business handler: the chef de cabinet cum business man.

By: Tabatha_White

Tabatha_White — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 21:00:00 +0000

In reply to Daphne Caruana Galizia. He can still manoeuvre what gets into that trust before it stays there, but his wife remains the "beneficiary" from the legal point of view.I'm sure there are ancilliary supporting agreements not intended for the public eye, either.

By: Daphne Caruana Galizia

Daphne Caruana Galizia — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 18:32:00 +0000

There is no explanation for why he would have wanted to make his wife (ex wife?) the ultimate beneficiary.

By: H.P. Baxxter

H.P. Baxxter — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 17:31:00 +0000

Plus about 5,000 new Maltese passport holders.

By: Daphne Caruana Galizia

Daphne Caruana Galizia — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 13:41:00 +0000

Odd you should say that. I was wondering what his facial expression and general body language put me in mind of, and now it’s clicked: my Staffordshire bull terrier, when he sees me approach carrying what looks suspiciously like anti-tick spray.

By: Daphne Caruana Galizia

Daphne Caruana Galizia — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 13:37:00 +0000

In reply to Tom Double Thumb.

Actually, the most important difference is the source of the money. As you said, Gatt inherited his from his father and there is the last will and testament to back that up.

Konrad Mizzi’s father is still very much alive (in fact he has been appointed director of a state corporation) and Mizzi junior himself is only in his 30s and has been on a government minister’s salary for three years. He can’t have made, in any honest fashion, sufficient money/assets to justify a trust or a company in a tax haven.

By: Tom Double Thumb

Tom Double Thumb — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 13:33:00 +0000

He just had to mention Austin Gatt, didn’t he? Austin Gatt inherited his father’s money and left it where it was, in Switzerland, declared to the authorities.

Doesn’t Joseph Muscat know the difference between that and a secret trust in New Zealand holding a shell company in Panama under a different name? I am not an accountant or economist but I do see a difference.

By: Daphne Caruana Galizia

Daphne Caruana Galizia — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 13:32:00 +0000

1. Konrad Mizzi set up a company in Panama, which he owns.

2. Quite some time after that, a trust was set up in New Zealand. The ultimate beneficiaries of the trust (not trust fund – it doesn’t hold funds; it holds the Panama company) are Mrs Mizzi and their children, but not him.