Simon Busuttil Wants Copy Of Inquiry Into Keith Schembri’s Suspicious Loan To Nexia BT Boss
Former Opposition leader Simon Busuttil has formally asked the Attorney General to provide him with a copy of a magisterial inquiry into a suspicious loan repayment granted by Nexia BT boss Brian Tonna to former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri.
Busuttil’s lawyer, PN MP Jason Azzopardi, said they recently found out the inquiry has been concluded, three years after Busuttil had requested it.
“It was only by coincidence that we found out the inquiry has been concluded for a number of days,” he said. “We now expect the AG to immediately give a copy of the inquiry to the person who requested it, Simon Busuttil, just as Joseph Muscat was given a copy of the Egrant report.”
In the run-up to the 2017 general election, Busuttil triggered a magisterial inquiry by Natasha Galea Sciberras after receiving a leaked FIAU report into two €50,000 transactions made by Tonna to Schembri in 2015.
The FIAU said these could have been kickbacks on the sale of Maltese citizenship to three Russian nationals and called for a police investigation.
Schembri and Tonna have insisted that this payment was actually the repayment of a loan intended to help Tonna through separation proceedings.
However, Times of Malta reported that this loan agreement was signed in 2012, two years before the Tonna filed a separation deed. In fact, the separation deed showed the Tonnas bought a field 15 days after the loan agreement was signed, raising serious questions as to whether Schembri’s payment was actually intended to help Tonna with his separation case.
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