A cabal of crooked liars who would have us believe that Egrant Inc is a ‘shelf’ company

March 2013: Karl Cini of Nexia BT writes to Mossack Fonseca, asking them to set up a company and trust for “an individual”, and that the details of this individual would be given over Skype. The company is Egrant Inc.

This email, which is found in the Panama Papers, makes it clear that this third individual’s money-laundering structure is identical to Konrad Mizzi’s and Keith Schembri’s: a company and a trust.

The trust is never talked about because we don’t know the name. But we need to remember that yes, there is also a trust.

February 2017: Just before the PANA Committee arrives in Malta, Brian Tonna of Nexia BT speaks to the press, saying that Egrant Inc is a shelf (ready-made) company which Nexia BT bought from Mossack Fonseca, to have it lying around just in case some client might want a company in Panama, in which case they would bring it down off the shelf, dust it off, and sell it to him.

For some reason, nobody believes him. And they believe him even less when the Prime Minister, a day later, delivers a highly unconvincing ‘you see, it isn’t mine’ speech at a Labour Party club.

Kurt Farrugia, Konrad Mizzi (partly hidden), Joseph Muscat and Keith Schembri in Baku – December 2014