Nexia BT's bosses and one of the partner companies in the Electrogas power station are expected to face criminal charges following the conclusion of the 17 Black magisterial inquiry, Times of Malta is informed.
A criminal inquiry presented to the Attorney General last week concluded that Brian Tonna, Karl Cini and SOCAR Trading SA are among a list of individuals and companies who should be charged over Yorgen Fenech’s secret company 17 Black, sources confirmed.
They are joined, among others, by Keith Schembri, Konrad Mizzi and Yorgen Fenech himself, all of whom are set to face criminal charges over plans to receive payments from 17 Black.
It is yet unclear what the charges will be, but the inquiry was centred around plans by 17 Black to pay money to Schembri and Mizzi via secretive offshore structures in Panama. Sources said some of the individuals and companies are expected to face fraud charges, while others will be charged with money laundering, criminal association and trading in influence.
Nexia BT’s former bosses, Brian Tonna and Karl Cini, first hit the headlines in 2016 for setting up the secret companies.
The companies are alleged to have been meant to launder illicit proceeds from major national projects like the Electrogas power station, in partnership with Fenech and his Dubai company 17 Black.
A leaked e-mail from the Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca said 17 Black was intended to pay up to $2 million into companies owned by Schembri and Mizzi.
The accountancy firm Nexia BT has since been shut down and Tonna and Cini already face criminal charges in other cases of alleged corruption.
Times of Malta and Reuters exposed Fenech's ownership of 17 Black in 2018.
At the time the Panama companies were set up, Fenech was leading the consortium that won a €450 million government contract to build and operate a new power station in Delimara.
One of the partners in that consortium was SOCAR Trading – Azerbaijan’s state-owned energy company, which owns a one-third stake in Malta’s power station.
An analysis by The Guardian estimated that Socar Trading SA made around €32 million from the deal in 2017, as it leveraged differences in market prices and the fixed price at which Electrogas, and ultimately Enemalta, bought LNG from it.
The role of the company as an LNG supplier to Electrogas has also raised eyebrows, not least because it does not have its own LNG supply chain.
In 2021, Times of Malta revealed how Fenech was given the inside track on plans by Azerbaijan’s government to strengthen its ties with Malta, particularly in the energy sector.
On Friday, it was revealed that Magistrate Charmaine Galea concluded her magisterial inquiry into the years-long, complex case, and it is now up to the AG to file criminal charges.
Sources said ex-Electrogas director Paul Apap Bologna, as well as Mario Pullicino, the local agent for the floating storage tanker fuelling the power station will also be charged.
Both Apap Bologna and Pullicino held secretive offshore structures similar to 17 Black.
A magisterial inquiry into 17 Black and the Panama scandal was only triggered in 2018, following a report by the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit that was sent to the police.
Lawyer Jason Azzopardi had filed parallel requests on behalf of former PN leader Simon Busuttil, MEP David Casa and Repubblika, which were eventually merged into one inquiry.