Nexia BT managing partner Brian Tonna on Wednesday said that he only learnt that secret company 17 Black was owned by Yorgen Fenech after it emerged in the media.

“I was not happy, but I could not do anything about it,” Tonna told parliament’s public accounts committee, where he was answering questions related to a decision to award a power station contract to the Electrogas consortium.

He said he had raised the matter with Keith Schembri, telling him he was disgusted. He did not speak to Konrad Mizzi about it. 

Fenech, who stands accused of complicity in the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, was an Electrogas shareholder and director. Tonna contributed to the adjudication process that led to the consortium winning the bid.

Leaked documents have revealed that 17 Black was named as a source of funds for secret Panama companies that Tonna opened for former minister Konrad Mizzi and former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri.

Those companies were set up in 2013, with ownership being transferred to Mizzi and Schembri in 2015. Times of Malta and Reuters revealed that Fenech was 17 Black's owner in November 2018.

Tonna told MPs that "the person" who was opening a Panama company together with Mizzi - Schembri - wanted to invest in a recycling business and gaming company.

When 17 Black and Macbridge were mentioned, he assumed 17 Black was the name of the gaming company, Tonna said. 

Asked if he had protested to Schembri after learning that Fenech owned 17 Black, Tonna said he did not, but then said he could not say more and was invoking his right to remain silent.

Pressed further by PN MP Beppe Fenech Adami about whether Konrad Mizzi had any particular reason for opening his own company in Panama and a trust in New Zealand, Tonna said he did not know of any.

“So did he want to set up such a complex financial structure for nothing?” Fenech Adami asked.

At this point, Tonna was advised by his lawyer to invoke his right to remain silent because of a pending criminal case against him for alleged money laundering.

'Mossack Fonseca suggested €5,000 figure'

Tonna said it was Panamanian firm Mossack Fonseca, not Nexia BT or Mizzi or Schembri, that suggested listing the €5,000 daily figure as the income the companies were to receive. The sum was listed in order to placate banks when applying to open accounts for the companies, he said.

The Nexia BT managing partner told MPs that he had “no reaction” when he learnt that a second company named as a source of funds for Mizzi and Schembri, Macbridge, was owned by Chinese negotiator Chen Cheng.

Cheng worked with Enemalta to finalise deals involving Shanghai Electric and a wind farm in Montenegro.

Tonna confirmed that his firm had helped Cheng set up a company in the British Virgin Islands, Torbridge Serviced Ltd., but said he had nothing to do with Macbridge, was not his fiduciary and knew nothing of Cheng’s links with government.

In previous appearances before the committee, Tonna had said that he was not involved in carrying out due diligence on bids submitted to build a gas-fired power station.

His role, Tonna had said, was to serve on a financial evaluation committee that used quantitative data to reach a conclusion. Tonna had also acknowledged that he was also involved in the fifth, adjudicating stage which had chosen the final bid.  

Speaking on Wednesday, Tonna told the committee that he had been asked to sit on the evaluation committee for the power station bid by Enemalta’s then-chairman Louis Giordmaina.

He confirmed that it was he who nominated two other members to that financial committee and that he had picked two other people from his firm. But Tonna said he saw nothing wrong with that, given that the role was a technical one

Tonna insisted that he was not close to Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi at the time. When asked if he thought it was inappropriate for him to handle the minister’s financial affairs after sitting on a board appointed under his ministry, Tonna said that he was no longer involved in adjudicating the power station deal by then.

At the time, he never expected the “pogrom” which the setting up of the Panama companies would raise, Tonna told the committee.