Mossack Fonseca approached NINE banks to open accounts for Hearnville and Tillgate

The latest documents and information published this morning by Australia’s Financial Review reveal that Mossack Fonseca approached at least NINE banks in various shady jurisdictions to have accounts opened for Hearnville Inc (owned by Konrad Mizzi, Minister of Health and Energy) and Tillgate Inc (owned by Keith Schembri, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff).

They thought they had struck lucky at one bank in Panama, but were then told that the account would be opened only if the owners of the companies applied for immigration visas to Panama.

At another bank, they were asked for an initial deposit of $1 million each, but this was negotiated down to $300,000 each. We don’t know what happened after that because the chain of emails runs dry.

This does not mean that there are no more emails, but that the leak may have ended at around that point last December, so further emails are not among the Panama Papers.

The Minister of Health and Energy (centre). The woman on the right, Phyllis Micallef, is married to his ministerial chauffeur.