Keith Schembri, the prime minister’s chief of staff, said today that the latest revelations about the Panama papers showed that there had been no bribery or corruption and had thus burst the PN's bubble.

“There is no mention of Azerbaijan or any other contract related to the government of Malta,” a statement issued on his behalf said.

It added that the Australian Financial Review's revelations confirmed that the millions (of euro) which Simon Busuttil had spoken about did not exist, “so much so that the international banks did not open the bank accounts.”

Mr Schembri said he had always been active in business, but that upon taking up his post at the Office of the Prime Minister he handed on the management of his companies while remaining a shareholder.

Like every father, he said, he acted in a way to ensure that his children enjoyed a better life than him. That this genuine sentiment was being used for partisan interests showed the depths to which politics had descended to.

Mr Schembri said that on March 14 last year he engaged Nexia BT, who were the auditors of his Kasco Group for 20 years, to set up a trust where he could consolidate his assets and commercial interests, including assets found in an existing trust with a local bank. The purpose of the trust was estate planning generally, preservation of family assets, and family succession planning.

On July 2, 2015 he acquired Tillgate, a shelf company in Panama already held by Nexia. On July 22, 2015 he constituted Haast Trust in New Zealand and transferred the company to the trust.

Mr Schembri said every company needed a bank account in order to operate, and Mossack Fonseca was engaged to explore the possibility of opening a bank account for this purpose.

It was evident, he said, that contact was made with various banks. The banks wanted deposits of a million or more.

To date, Mr Schembri said, the company and the trust were still without a bank account and no funds had been deposited in them. However Mr Schembri said he never excluded depositing into the New Zealand trust the funds and investments held in a local bank.

Mr Schembri said it was never his intention to hide his structure from the Maltese financial authorities. As any tax consultant could confirm, his income was paid in Malta. The trust had been declared with the authorities in New Zealand and subsequently with the Maltese authorities.

Any other insinuation was an invention that was malicious and intended solely to harm him, Mr Schembri said.

He again denied claims, reported on Sunday, that the Panama companies were set up five days after the general election. Tillgate was registered on July 15, 2013 as a shelf company.

Mr Schembri said he had no knowledge of the company before that date.

He insisted that the funds which were to be transferred to the company were generated from his personal holdings and that of his companies.

It was for this reason, he said, that Nexia told the banks it had contacted that the source of his funds would come from waste recycling and other activities, which all formed part of the activities of his companies, active well before the last general election.

Furthermore, the Kasco Group was continuing to expand its activities, possibly including remote gaming and it was involved in RFID technology in the UK, Italy, Greece and Spain among other countries.

Mr Schembri said that the Australian Financial Review's article, correspondence by Nexia on behalf of other clients was being wrongly attributed to him.

NO BUSINESS WITH KONRAD MIZZI

He denied that he had ever intended joining Konrad Mizzi in some business venture, and said the allegation made by AFR today was absurd and reflected its confusion.

Mr Schembri published correspondence from AFR journalist Neil Chenowth to prove his case and said he had engaged lawyers in Australia to safeguard his reputation.

(See full text in pdf below. The Ivan Camilleri mentioned in the correspondence in not the Times of Malta journalist )