Jonathan Ferris, the former police and FIAU investigator, testified on Wednesday at the latest sitting of the inquiry into the events surrounding the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Mr Ferris has previously claimed he was sidelined from his financial investigative role after reports by the journalist emerged claiming offshore company Egrant Inc was owned by former Prime Minster Joseph Muscat's wife, Michelle.
The inquiry is investigating whether the state could have prevented the murder of Ms Caruana Galizia, who was killed in a car bomb outside her Bidnija home in October 2017.
What we learnt today
- Jonathan Ferris says his first contact with Daphne Caruana Galizia was in April 2017 (six months before she was murdered) in a phone call that later turned into an argument over his treatment of whistleblower Maria Efimova in a previous police investigation
- He repeated his claims that former minister and EU commissioner John Dalli told him secret offshore company Egrant was owned by Labour. He also says Dalli described Daphne Caruana Galizia as a "cyber terrorist".
- He said he never suspected Daphne Caruana Galizia's life was at risk
He recounts being 'paranoid' at security within the FIAU - When he first joined the FIAU, he describes finding a report that found 'substantial breaches' at now-defunct Pilatus Bank, and then being surprised that a subsequent FIAU report gave it a 'clean bill of health'.
- He recalls being asked by ministers, including former Foreign Affairs minister Carmelo Abela for information on investigations he was carrying out and warned by the head of the economic crimes unit not to cause a "diplomatic incident".
- On his first day at work with the FIAU, he was asked to sign a report into the activities of former Allied Newspapers director Adrian Hillman and former prime minister's chief of staff Keith Schembri but would only check it for English errors.
- He recalled a report he was involved in about Konrad Mizzi and his links to secret Panama companies that had "reached reasonable suspicions"
Live blog
That's all for today
4.07pm Mr Ferris evidence has ended. The inquiry will be back on Monday at 2.30pm when we're expecting to hear from. MFSA director general Marianne Scicluna is due to testify.
Other witnesses lined up are police inspector Raymond Aquilina, inspector Antonovich Muscat and the head of the economic crimes unit, Ian Abdilla.
In a few minutes, we'll have a round up of the key points we found out today.
'At any time did you suspect Daphne's life was at risk?'
4.03pm Remember that this inquiry is fundamentally about whether the state could have prevented the murder of an investigative journalist. Mr Ferris is asked now: "At any time did you suspect that Daphne Caruana Galizia’s life was at risk?"
"No," he replies.
He goes on to explain how the FIAU "relied on her as open source". He says: "A journalist has a right to express herself freely. God forbid we reached a situation when that was not so!"
He adds that as an economic crimes expert he did not perceive any threats but suggest, CID "would be better tuned to that".
Daphne described as 'cyber terrorist'
4.01pm Asked about how John Dalli had spoken about Daphne Caruana Galizia, Mr Ferris draws some humour in court.
"He referred to her once as a cyber terrorist- the chemistry between those two apparently did not work," Ferris remarks.
Journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia'I became paranoid'
3.49pm Ferris says he grew suspicious that someone was going into his office - the only one at the FIAU without CCTV cameras.
Asked why, he says that he "became paranoid", perhaps because of his police background and that Finance Minister Edward Scicluna had remarked that “reports had been written to be leaked.”
At a family event in May he checked FIAU cameras remotely from his phone.
"There I suddenly found (Ian) Abdilla going into the director’s office. I was not there. I spotted a red file."
He said that the next day he got a call from Inspector Rennie Stivala, telling him to go to the inquiring Magistrate.
Ferris was about to leave for court with a file about the LNG power station when FIAU colleague Kenneth Farrugia told him, “no, take only the last four pages.”
Ferris replied: "How do you know what the magistrate is going to ask?” Once there he found Ian Abdilla before the magistrate. Abdilla told him just to confirm the report. Ferris noted that the magistrate, Aaron Bugeja, already had a copy. Ferris noted discrepancies but Abdilla insisted that Ferris was “just to confirm”.
After that, magistrate Bugeja had told Ferris to go through the report, take his time and make note of any discrepencies.
A report about Konrad Mizzi
3.30pm Mr Ferris is asked about his dismissal from FIAU. He explains that he was never given any reason for his sacking and that a court case is still ongoing.
He says that at the time he had been working on a complex 130-page report about former Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi and had spent a day going through it with his colleagues Kenneth Farrugia, Alfred Zammit and Ruth Gauci.
The report, which was later leaked to the media, had "reached reasonable suspicions". They were to go through it and then pass it on for police investigations.
The report was about Konrad Mizzi's links to secret Panama companies and also mentioned Nexia BT's Karl Cini and Brian Tonna. A number of financial structures were involved. He refers to a London flat rented for €5000 a month and that expenses to set a trust outweighed savings, according to the FIAU analysis.
The report looked into offshore companies Hearnville and Tillgate as well as the Rotorua Trust.
There was a small one-cent credit card transaction that drew suspicion in connection with a Montenegro deal with the Malta government.
Dr Mizzi had also traveled to China 17 times, staying in hotels in spite of family there. And there were attempts to open accounts at eight banks in Dubai, Panama and another country. The analysis found that various jurisdictions had refused to open accounts for him.
Konrad Mizzi.'When did Daphne Caruana Galizia contact you?'
3.20pm The board asks Mr Ferris when he first met Daphne Caruana Galizia.
"Let me make this clear. I never met her in person," he starts, before elaborating that he use to go to is office on a Saturday to answer emails and had got a call from Alfred Zammit on Saturday April 29, 2017, telling him to keep away because there was a meeting.
Later that evening he got a call while at church.
“Hi it’s Daphne,” the voice on the other end of the phone said.
He recognized her voice and called her later when the pair had a 45-minute telephone argument about alleged mistreatment by police of Pilatus bank employee-turned-whistleblower Maria Efimova.
Later the two made up. “Let’s start afresh,” Daphne had told him. She never asked me for information, Mr Ferris stresses.
“These are hard times,” she had said later after news of his firing from FIAU broke out.
Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb outside her home in October 2017. Photo: Mark Zammit CordinaAdrian Hillman and Keith Schembri
3.13pm After his first day at work, on November 2, Mr Ferris was handed a report to sign about the prime minister's former chief of staff Keith Schembri and former Allied Newspapers Managing Director Adrian Hillman.
He said he would only check English errors since he had not drawn up the report himself.
Asked about a report on alleged kickbacks, he says it was sent to the police.
"The FIAU acts upon reasonable suspicion; police act on reasonable doubt," he explains.
He describes a "very understaffed" unit and says that a request was made for more resources.
"Did the FIAU board ask for information regarding ongoing investigations?" the inquiry asks.
"It never asked me for anything."
Keith Schembri. Photo: Darrin Zammit LupiA blog post by Daphne Caruana Galizia
3.07pm Mr Ferris said he was put on the case of Pilatus bank after a blog post by Daphne Caruana Galizia. He had got hold of the compliance report by the FIAU, after he was told through Alfred Zammit that the FIAU had given the bank a "clean bill of health".
He said this report was signed by Afred Zammit, who had signed it after an audit by KPMG.
'We started with a bang from day one'
2.56pm Mr Ferris is moving on to his time at the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU). He says: “bdejna bil-banda from day one (we started with a bang from day one)".
He begins discussing controversial and now defunct Pilatus Bank. Asked to explain "bit by bit", he says a report from the bank had reached Msida police station, who turned to the economic crimes unit. It involved an allegation of a theft of a few thousand pounds by then employee Maria Efimova.
Ferris was an officer at the economic crimes unit at the time. Later when he joined FIAU in November 2016 he found that a supervisory report had been drawn up finding “substantial breaches” concerning the bank, signed by FIAU director Manfred Galdes.
He refers to another report that was signed by Manfred Galdes, deputy Alfred Zammit, who took over when Galdes moved out. This report gave the bank "a clean bill of health".
The Ta' Xbiex headquarters of the controversial Pilatus BankPonzi scheme report
2.48pm Jonathan Ferris is now discussing when he left the police economics crime unit to join the FIAU. He says that in mid May 2016, there was a joint seminar between FIAU, judiciary, police and the MFSA.
He said he had met an "old friend" Manfred Galdes. "What's wrong?" Galdes asked.
"The police corps is no longer for me," Ferris had replied. A few days later he got a call from the FIAU asking for his CV. Some time after that when he was in Italy, he received a call from the FIAU to ask if he was still interested.
Ferris had deemed this rather strange: "not normal procedure".
At a final dinner in Italy, he met Giovanni Kessler, (head of OLAF) who told him he had sent him a report via the Attorney General.
Ferris told him he had received no report but said he would check upon his return. He went to Attorney General Peter Grech and asked if he got a report from Kessler regarding John Dalli. The AG first said no but later found an envelope from Kessler.
Ferris told Grech not to open but to pass on for investigation. It was a report about the Ponzi scheme, involving fraud by four people, including John Dalli's daughters.
Ferris had subsequently drawn up the charges on that score, which included fraud and money laundering and the report was passed on to Ian Abdilla.
'Please don't create a diplomatic incident'
2.40pm The board asks Mr Ferris if there was any interference in his work. He replies : "There was once an email from secretary of Minister Carmelo Abela who wanted information about a particular investigation."
Mr Ferris refused. He refers to another email "from higher up" and again he refused.
A third email is mentioned telling him information had been requested by a minister and that minister was in copy.
Then he got a message from Ian Abdilla, who heads up the police Economic Crimes Unit, telling him “please don’t create a diplomatic incident”.
Mr Ferris had replied that he would not breach data protection rules. There was no further insistence after that, he said.
The minister was in copy but that is as far as he went. "If anyone dared interfere, I would show them the door," Mr Ferris says.
Carmelo Abela (right) with former police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar. Photo: Mark Zammit Cordina'Dalli told me: Egrant belongs to the Labour party'
2.34pm Mr Ferris speaks about former minister and European Commissioner John Dalli. He has previously given evidence, denied by the former minister, that it was Dalli who said offshore company Egrant was owned by the Labour party.
He recalls that conversation now and how he spoke to Dalli at his office, together with his daughter Claire. He can remember the exact spot at the depot.
Dalli had pulled Ferris towards him telling him: "I admire you. If you want to make some noise, Egrant belongs to the Labour Party."
He said he didn't give much thought to it at the time.
John DalliA bit of background
2.18pm Mr Ferris runs the board through his academical studies preceding his joining the police force. Theology was one of them.
He joined under former police commissioner John Rizzo. He moved to the economic crimes unit under assistant police commissioner Michael Cassar.
He said had experience in economics and financial services too. Hence the move. After Rizzo moved out as commissioner in April 2013, Inspector Cassar was moved to Malta Security Services, taking with him some officers, including Angelo Gafa.
"We were investigating fuel smuggling at the time."
Ferris got handed all Angelo Gafa's files. "Gafa had the hot potatoes, the Dalli case, the oil smuggling case."
It was the first time that such a move happened in the corps, Mr Ferris says, adding that taking over Gafa's workload added to his already heavy load.
John Rizzo was police commissioner when Jonathan Ferris was first in the economic crimes unit. File Photo: Matthew Mirabelli'No-one has spoken to me since 2018'
2.16pm Mr Ferris says that since August 2018 "no one ever spoke to me again" about his claims to the inquiry. He says he was spoken to once by police inspector Yvonne Farrugia and another officer.
Egrant inquiry testimony
2.13pm The inquiry board has downloaded his testimony given to the Egrant inquiry into the alleged ownership of the secret offshore company. Mr Ferris confirms it is a faithful copy of his testimony.
Jonathan Ferris takes the stand
2.10pm Jonathan Ferris takes the stand. For background: he is a former police officer and FIAU investigator.