Prime Minister’s chief of staff and Energy Minister were still trying to open bank accounts in Panama last December

This story in the Times of Malta is yet another one which gives the lie to everything the Prime Minister, his chief of staff and his Special Minister have said since the news first began to break back in February that Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri were up to no good and had been setting up offshore companies to deal with the proceeds of that.

The newspapers have now got to stop reporting the facts as they are found in the Panama Papers alongside the empty denials and libel threats issued by Schembri and Mizzi, as though both sides are just as valid. Because they are not. The reports in The Malta Independent and the Times of Malta/Sunday Times are copper-bottomed, factual and based on incontrovertible proof in the form of highly explicit documents obtained from the internet servers at Mossack Fonseca.

Of course you have to get the other side of the story, but when the other side is lying, a newspaper’s duty is to point this out and to explain where the lies are. If a document obtained straight from the server says very explicitly that Schembri and Mizzi were hunting for banks to take their money, then it’s pointless having Schembri and Mizzi deny it as though these are just two versions of a story and it’s up to us to decide which one is true. The one with the facts detailed in emails is true. The one without facts, just a lot of angry words, is not true.

Today’s story in the Times of Malta, which is based on full access to the Panama Papers, details how the Prime Minister’s chief of staff and the Energy Minister tried to open accounts at the Panama subsidiary of a Swiss bank only five months ago. These accounts were to be tied to their the Panama companies each of them had set up in 2013. Until that point, they had tried to open bank accounts, unsuccessfully – as the Australian Financial Review reported last month – with up to nine banks in several jurisdictions, including Panama, Dubai and the Caribbean.

In one email, Karl Cini of Nexia BT told Mossack Fonseca that he had spoken to Schembri and Mizzi, who wanted to check about opening accounts with BSI Bank in Panama. He wrote: “They are asking re the usd 1m[illion] deposit. Is this for initial deposit only? is there a minimum they need to keep as running/average balance?” The email is dated November 26, 2015.

BSI Panama would accept an initial deposit of $100,000, another email says, but the bank will close the account if “significantly less than $800,000” was deposited throughout the year. On 2 December 2, Cini told Mossack Fonseca to open the bank accounts for “those two Panama companies” (Konrad Mizzi’s Hearnville Inc and Keith Schembri’s Tillgate Inc).

Now that they had finally found a bank that would take them despite their politically exposed status (all the other banks had refused), things got a little sticky. Mossack Fonseca emails Karl Cini:

“We were told by one of our contacts that the BSI Bank was recently sold to a Colombian bank. Rules are changing and we were told that if the clients are not applying to immigration visas in Panama they won’t open the account.

“I am double checking about this, so it is not negative at all. But, at the same time, on Friday last week I called two other banks and asked them for opening bank accounts for PEPs. They want me to send the info about the clients in order to run a quick pre-check and let us know if they will be in a position of opening the bank account.

“If you authorise me, I could send the info they are requesting. But, talking with Juan Carlos today, he told me that for this quick pre-check, the banks will need the info he asks in the e-mail below.”

Then, on 15 December, Cini emails Mossack Fonseca: “I am collating the info requested by Juan Carlos. In the meantime, please confirm that BSI Bank (in whatever capacity they are now) have not closed any doors and are still open for business for the mentioned clients.”