It is Brian Tonna’s BT International which deals with Identity Malta, not his ‘secret’ Willerby Trade Inc

First, read this story in the Times of Malta.

While it is right about Brian Tonna’s corruption, it is wrong about how the money was paid to Tonna’s company Willerby Trade Inc, which is incorporated in the British Virgin Islands.

It says that Willerby Trade Inc is not on the list of registered agents for the sale of passports, so how could Identity Malta have paid Willerby? But Identity Malta does not deal with Willerby. It deals with BT International, Tonna’s Malta-incorporated company which is a registered agent.

BT International then pays 50% of the fees to Willerby Trade Inc, as “referral fees”, reducing its tax exposure because when Willerby was set up under Mossack Fonseca nominees, nobody could have known that Tonna owns it too. That information emerges in the Panama Papers.

So the way it works is this: the Prime Minister’s chief of staff puts Brian Tonna in touch with people who want to buy Maltese citizenship; BT International Ltd handles their applications and bills Identity Malta; Identity Malta pays BT International Ltd; Willerby Trade Inc bills BT International Ltd for 50% of that amount, calling it ‘referral fees’; BT International Ltd transfers the money to Willerby Trade Inc; Willerby Trade Inc kicks back a proportion of it to the Prime Minister’s chief of staff.

I had explained all this here. The real story is far more shocking than the Times of Malta story today, which leaves out completely the fraudulent agreement (documented in the Panama Papers) between the two companies both owned by Brian Tonna.