Last Updated on Thursday, 16 July, 2020 at 9:16 am by Andre Camilleri
Over €14 million were recovered from Maltese taxpayers who were being investigated in relation to the Panama Papers scandal, along with another €13 million from the Swiss Leaks scandal.
This information was provided by Finance Minister Edward Scicluna who was answering to a parliamentary question put forward by PN MP Claudio Grech.
Grech asked the minister for the number of taxpayers that have been investigated for being related to the Panama Papers in total, which cases have been closed and which are still pending, as well as the total sum of money that has been recovered through them.
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Scicluna explained that there are 237 cases of Maltese taxpayers that were investigated in this regard, 74 of which are still pending while 163 have been concluded. The amount of money that has been collected from the latter is €14,232,295.
The Panama Papers scandal has been making headlines since 2016, ever since independent journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was assassinated in 2017, hinted at the existence of a New Zealand Trust under the name of former Energy and Health Minister Konrad Mizzi and his company located in Panama. Former OPM Chief of Staff Keith Schembri was found to have a similar setup at the time and investigations ensued by journalists from The Malta Independent, The Times of Malta and others.
This was followed by a series of other revelations, chief amongst which was the mention of 17 Black, owned by murder suspect Yorgen Fenech.
€13.4 million recovered from 94 Swiss Leaks investigations
PN MP Grech also asked Finance Minister Scicluna to give the same information of investigated Maltese taxpayers in relation to the Swiss Leaks scandal of 2015.
Scicluna said that there were 96 Maltese taxpayers that were investigated for having relations to the Swiss Leaks. 94 of these cases have been closed with a total of €13,422,115 being recovered, while 2 cases are still pending.
The Swiss Leaks files had been made available to The Malta Independent through an investigative partnership with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and French newspaper Le Monde.
