Attorney General Peter Grech resigned amid a chorus of calls for him to step down. During his tenure he contributed in no small way to the collapse of the rule of law in the country. He consistently failed to prosecute close allies of disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat despite damning reports by the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit that raised serious suspicions of their involvement in money laundering and high-level corruption.

Back in February 2016, the  Panama Papers had revealed that Konrad Mizzi, a cabinet minister, and Keith Schembri, chief of staff to Muscat, were the beneficial owners and ultimate shareholders of two secret offshore shell companies registered in Panama under a tax evasion scheme.

However, the police did not call in Mizzi and Schembri after an FIAU report indicated criminal action for involvement in suspicious money laundering activities related to the Panama Papers.

Nor did the police follow up on the FIAU’s advice to conduct a seizure of data from local financial consulting company Nexia BT that had set up the secret companies.

A note dated May 16, 2016, by Attorney General Peter Grech cautioned the police that data seizure would be highly intrusive, potentially counterproductive and expose to legal liability. Grech’s advice was described as a “murder memo” by the family of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

The servers of Nexia BT were only seized a year later with Muscat’s blessing, thus allowing evidence to be compromised and giving away a golden opportunity of gaining access to data about the Panama companies of Mizzi and Schembri.

When in November 2017 Grech was asked by members of an EU committee of inquiry why he did not press charges against the persons exposed in the Panama Papers, he insisted that he could not do it because they required to be officially charged by the police first.

Grech was contradicted by legal experts, including former chief justice Silvio Camilleri. Apart from the fact that the Prevention of Money Laundering Act gives the attorney general the right to issue an investigation order requesting the police to start a criminal investigation, the constitution itself exempts him from the direction or control of any other person or authority in the exercise of his power to institute criminal proceedings. 

In April 2016, the police had received an FIAU report authored by ex-director Manfred Galdes, that alleged bribery from the sale of Maltese passports through corrupt transactions amounting to €100,000.

These transactions were made from a British Virgin Islands offshore bank account belonging to Brian Tonna, managing partner of Nexia BT, to an account belonging to Schembri held by the now defunct Pilatus Bank.

Seven months later, in November 2016, a second FIAU report concerning Schembri was sent to the police, where suspicions of money laundering and proceeds of crime were raised over the transfer of more than €650,000 from him to Adrian Hillman, the former managing director of Allied Newspapers. 

No action was taken on both reports, although over an eight-year period, following his appointment in 2010, Grech referred no less than 30 other cases of possible money laundering to the courts for investigation.

Grech also ignored an FIAU working document leaked in May 2017 that alleged that on July 23, 2015, money was transferred to Dubai based company 17 Black by a local company linked to the owners of a tanker that was commissioned by Mizzi to provide a gas store for the power station.

Six months later, Grech told the EU committee of inquiry that he “had never read the working document”.

Yorgen Fenech, Electrogas Malta Ltd director and shareholder, was identified as 17 Black’s owner in an FIAU report sent to the police for money-laundering investigation in spring 2017.

It was also revealed that the company was created to transfer kickbacks to Mizzi and Schembri through their respective secret Panama companies that amounted to €5,000 daily to each of them.

Mizzi travelled 17 times to China in a span of two years out of public funds, but only five visits were made public- Denis Tanti

According to a report by the National Audit Office, there were serious shortcomings with regards to the bidding process and due diligence employed in the selection process, through which Electrogas Malta Ltd was chosen from among 19 bidders to build the power station and provide electricity and gas to Enemalta for a period of 18 years.

Damning evidence of impropriety by Mizzi was also revealed in connection with the Enemalta multi-million privatisation deal signed on December 12, 2014, between him and Chinese Shanghai Power Co. Ltd.

Through this deal the Chinese company acquired a 33 per cent stake in Enemalta and effectively took control of the power station enabling it to expand into the European energy market.

Mizzi travelled 17 times to China in a span of two years out of public funds, but only five visits were made public. Mizzi also avoided answering three parliamentary questions to establish his total number of visits. Furthermore, concerted efforts and disproportionate spending were made to open a bank account for Mizzi’s secret Panama offshore shell company as the Enemalta privatisation was nearing completion.

In his last address as chief justice given at the opening of the forensic year 2017, Silvio Camilleri explained that it becomes the attorney general’s responsibility to take action in serious cases where the police fail to investigate crime, in order that evidence can be collected and suspects arraigned before the judicial authorities.

In the lack of a request by the attorney general for an investigation order by the Criminal Court, it was former Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil who presented proof through court testimony that led to the opening of three magisterial inquiries into allegations of corruption involving Mizzi, Schembri and Tonna, among other individuals.

Busuttil has proved himself the torchbearer of the fight against corruption in Malta. Without his courageous initiative Malta would undoubtedly have continued to sink even deeper into corruption.

Grech leaves a legacy of distrust. He owes us an explanation and should be investigated for failing to carry out his duties as attorney general in an impartial and independent manner.

Denis Tanti is former assistant director in the health ministry.