You shouldn’t even have a company in Panama in the first place, Minister – so stop behaving as though it’s something normal

Panama is a jurisdiction black-listed by the European Commission because it doesn’t share asset-and-holdings information with the authorities of EU member states under the EU’s Tax & Savings Directive.

Panama’s secrecy is so absolute that not even its own authorities are permitted to obtain information from banks and other financial services operators. Among the tax havens black-listed by the European Commission, Panama is at the top.

When Konrad Mizzi incorporated his company in Panama, he was already a cabinet minister in the government of a European Union member state. In this comment to The Malta Independent, he admits the existence of his Panama company (something he conspicuously failed to do this morning) and says it holds nothing.

So why did he set it up, then? Just for fun and kicks?

What a liar. And when was he planning on telling us about it anyway? The answer to that is ‘never’ – which is exactly why it’s in Panama. He must be shocked to the core to find himself rumbled. Panama’s notorious concrete wall of secrecy breached? How did that happen? But it did.

He lied to Malta Today this morning by not telling them about Panama, and he’s lying again in this interview with The Malta Independent (below) when he says that he is only declaring the trust now because it’s his 2015 declaration and the trust was set up last year. But the Panama company was set up in 2013 and he never declared it. The purpose of incorporating it in Panama was so that it wouldn’t be discovered.