Statement by Ann Fenech

Nationalist Party president Ann Fenech has just released the following statement after Malta Today and One News carried stories in which her name is spuriously linked to a Panama company set up for third parties by another lawyer, who has since left the firm where she works, 13 years ago. I am reproducing it verbatim.

Unlike Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri, Ann Fenech does not own a company in Panama

The latest attempt to link me to ownership of companies in Panama by the Labour Party is completely futile and is no doubt engineered to divert attention away from Joseph Muscat, Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri who are embroiled in the biggest ever political scandal in our country.

I do not have, nor have I ever had a company in Panama, unlike Minister Konrad Mizzi and the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff, Keith Schembri, who have a company in the blacklisted jurisdiction.

The facts are that 13 years ago, Fenlex, the company of which I am a director, had provided its professional services to a client in order to register a company in Panama on their behalf. At the time Panama was not blacklisted. Moreover I was never involved in such work or such a registration. Fenlex does not offer registration of companies in Panama any longer.

Joseph Muscat is hopelessly trying to divert public attention away from the scandals of his government by trying to blur the clear difference between a Minister and Chief of Staff opening a company in a blacklisted tax haven after having taken important government posts for personal gain, and the operations of Malta’s financial services sector that offers trust and fiduciary services to local and foreign clients.

Joseph Muscat continues to attack the companies forming the financial services sector in our country. The Nationalist Party invested a lot of energy in creating a successful and strong financial services sector, bringing jobs and wealth to the Maltese economy. We will not let Joseph Muscat continue to try and hide his scandals by throwing dirt onto the reputation of Malta’s financial services sector.

No diversion tactic from Joseph Muscat will stop us from making our voice heard against the corruption in his government.

Ann Fenech
President of the Executive Committee of the Nationalist Party