Ann Fenech, president of the PN executive council, insisted again this morning that she does not own a company in Panama.
"The latest attempt to link me to ownership of companies in Panama by the Labour Party is completely futile and is no doubt engineered to divert attention away from Joseph Muscat, Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri who are embroiled in the biggest ever political scandal in our country," Dr Fenech said in a statement.
"I do not have, nor have I ever had a company in Panama, unlike Minister Konrad Mizzi and the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff, Keith Schembri who have a company in the blacklisted jurisdiction."
Dr Fenech explained that 13 years ago, Fenlex, the company of which she is a director, had provided its professional services to a client in order to register a company in Panama on their behalf. At the time Panama was not blacklisted.
Moreover she was never involved in such work or such a registration. Fenlex, she said, does not offer registration of companies in Panama any longer.
"Joseph Muscat is hopelessly trying to divert public attention away from the scandals of his government by trying to blur the clear difference between a Minister and Chief of Staff opening a company in a blacklisted tax have after having taken important government posts for personal gain, and the operations of Malta's financial services sector that offers trust and fiduciary services to local and foreign clients," Dr Fenech said.
"Joseph Muscat continues to attack the companies forming the financial services sector in our country. The Nationalist Party invested a lot of energy in creating a successful and strong financial services sector, bringing jobs and wealth to the Maltese economy. We will not let Joseph Muscat continue to try and hide his scandals by throwing dirt onto the reputation of Malta's financial services sector."
In a statement this morning, the Labour Party said that Dr Busuttil would be carrying Ann Fenech with him for the partisan protest this afternoon when Dr Fenech has been involved in Panama companies since 2003.
"She had hypocritically said that it is not right for a person to have a company in that country, but now it has been revealed that she is involved in one," the PL said.
"Old habits die hard."
"The difference is that while minister Konrad Mizz declared what he has, Ann Fenech kept everything under warps."
It said the government should humbly learn from what is happening, but Simon Busuttil and the PN are hardly in a position to preach, given the hypocrisy which has reached new levels.
(Dr Fenech last week sued the PL for libel over its claim that she had a company in Panama).