Egrant Inc was dissolved two weeks ago – so right now, nobody owns it because it doesn’t exist

So obviously, nobody owns it at this point because it no longer exists. I point this out in reference to the Labour Party leader’s speech at the party’s annual general conference opening session, tonight.

Joseph Muscat’s operational hallmark has long been plausible deniability.

He had said in April last year, days after the Panama Papers story broke around the world, that if proof emerges that his sidekicks Schembri and Mizzi have taken large sums of money using their Panama companies, he would not think twice about dismissing them.

Yet he did not dismiss them when he found out that they’d set up Panama companies behind his back – but hey, hang on, they didn’t set them up behind his back. So it follows that he knew what they wanted the companies for. Nobody sets up a company in Panama for kicks, especially not days after they have been elected to government.

I’m glad he said it, though, because he painted himself into a corner that’s now so tight there is no way out of it bar a series of mad attacks on those who report the news, which he hopes will take him up to the general election and beyond.

Bear in mind that this is the man who knows that there was a full investigation of Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi carried out by the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit, and a request made to Police Commissioner Michael Cassar for their prosecution – and still he hasn’t dismissed them.

Populating their companies with assets