A batch of 29 e-mails by Karl Cini to Mossack Fonseca about the setting up of bank accounts for Tillgate and Hearnville in various banks in different jurisdictions could not be found by forensic experts investigating the Egrant claims.
In a report to then-magistrate Aaron Bugeja, included in the 1500-page Egrant inquiry report published on Tuesday, forensic analysts and accountants from Harbinson Forensics flagged “gaps” in the e-mails of the Nexia BT accountant.
They explained how the data set handed to the magistrate by then-Opposition leader Simon Busuttil included 29 emails which were not present in the Nexia BT data set seized by the inquiring magistrate.
The e-mails were from the period between January and August 2015. The correspondence, the analysts found, was between Mr Cini and various Mossack Fonseca representatives regarding the setting up of bank accounts for Tillgate and Hearnville in various banks “in various jurisdictions- specifically Dubai”.
Hearnville and Tillgate were the once-secret Panama companies of the Prime Minister’s former chief of staff Keith Schembri and former minister Konrad Mizzi.
The pair took ownership of the two companies in 2015.
A leaked e-mail had revealed that 17 Black - which it later emerged is owned by the man accused of masterminding Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder Yorgen Fenech - as one of two sources of income for the Panama companies Hearnville and Tillgate.
“All of the emails relate to the setting up of bank accounts for Tillgate and Hearnville in various banks in various jurisdictions - specifically Dubai.
“This may be a coincidence or may indicate that Mr Cini may have wished to delete any reference to Dubai bank accounts in connection with Dr Mizzi and Mr Schembri - this might lead one to speculate whether such accounts were indeed set up, albeit perhaps in the names of different entities,” the analysts said.
Questions on the matter sent to Mr Cini by this newsroom have not been answered.
The inquiry was set up to investigate if the secret Panama company Egrant Inc was owned by the prime minister, his wife, or his family. It found no evidence to support the claim made by journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia that Ms Muscat owned Egrant.
Nonetheless, the report had also ordered probes into Mr Cini for perjury, Egrant whistleblower Maria Efimova for calumny and Pilatus Bank’s operations for money laundering.
These conclusions, which were never published by the government, also order an investigation into who falsified and distributed documents linking the Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s wife Michelle to Egrant.
Judge Bugeja also saw the need for a police investigation into a proposed offshore structure to promote and manage investment between Malta and China.