TimesTalk right now with Deborah Schembri and Chris Said

I’m watching – feel free to post your comments and observations. Right now Deborah Schembri is talking and making out that Konrad Mizzi’s behaviour was entirely legal and that “even the ICIJ” said that there are legitimate uses for offshore companies.

Tosh, of course. The prime minister of Iceland did nothing illegal, but he stepped down within two days from the release of Panama Papers. As one Icelandic journalist interviewed by Sky News said: “This is not about legalities. This is about ethical behaviour.”

But in Konrad Mizzi’s case, of course, it is also about legalities. He set up those structures, quite obviously, to receive kickbacks and launder them. Hence the urgency to set up a bank account in Panama or Dubai before the end of August last year – both banks turned him down as too big a risk.

Now she is saying that the Prime Minister should remove him only if he is “found to have millions – which he doesn’t”. What he did was an error of judgement, she said, because Panama is not quite the right thing. Mark Micallef, her interviewer, said that it may well be an error of judgement, but it’s an error of judgement that has had a negative impact on Malta.

Schembri is now saying that Konrad Mizzi put his Panama company/New Zealand trust in his “draft declaration of assets”. Chris Said has challenged her to say whether she actually saw this. “No,” she said. Said is now talking about Mizzi’s falsehoods, and how he was forced to reveal PART of the information about his secret set-ups about he realised that I knew about it.

Chris Said is now talking about the new facts that emerged last Sunday night: that Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri sought to open bank accounts in Dubai, were refused, and then tried in with a bank in Panama, and were refused there too. And how the nature of their business was described as “management consultancy and brokerage”. No wonder the banks turned them down. That had MONEY-LAUNDERING VEHICLE written all over it.

Now Deborah Schembri is saying that Konrad Mizzi never opened a bank account. Well, obviously – he couldn’t because the banks wouldn’t have it. But if they had allowed him, he would have had one. She’s really floundering now. Why do people put themselves in these positions – defending the shady actions of their colleagues instead of saying: “You did it. Bloody well defend it yourself.”

Her explanation now is that Mossack Fonseca was checking around to see where they could open an account for him – because being a PEP he couldn’t do it himself. This woman will go far in the Labour Party. She has proved herself willing to do anything for the party machine. She is now even saying that “no new information came out last Sunday”. Of course it did: the bank accounts; that’s crucial.

Mark Micallef, the interviewer, is now talking about how the purpose of Konrad Mizzi’s Panama company was described as “management consultancy and brokerage”. He’s now referring to Konrad Mizzi’s explanation that this was a “standard form” he filled in.

Chris Said has asked: “Why didn’t he simply open an account with a bank in Malta?”

“What brokerage?” he asked. “Brokerage on the sale of the power station, of the hospitals?”

Chris Said is now saying how horribly embarrassing it was to see the face and name of a Maltese minister among the world’s corrupt dictators on the ICIJ portal last Sunday night. He’s now ticking Deborah Schembri off for “taking things so lightly”. “You are being judged by the people,” he said. “This is a very grave matter.”

Said is talking about how significant it is that the two men closest to the Prime Minister – who are unlikely to be able or willing to act without his knowledge – have set up companies in Panama and trusts in New Zealand.

Deborah Schembri has said: “Iceland has nothing to do with us.” That’s right, my dear. Iceland is a true democracy.

“Don’t you think that this case is going to cause a great deal of damage to Malta’s financial services industry?” Mark Micallef asks Schembri. She avoids the questions and starts talking about the “cedoli” (stupid word – who uses it?) “tal-Partit Nazzjonalista”. Clearly she hasn’t heard what her colleague the Finance Minister said in parliament tonight, about how it is wrong to attempt to use one issue to try and obscure the other.

“Konrad Mizzi did not commit a crime,” she said. “He made his wife and children the beneficiaries of the trust. He would not have done that if he was up to something wrong.”

That’s called a non sequitur, Ms Schembri. All the crime bosses and dictators provide for their families through the proceeds of crime.