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Malta businessman held on yacht in journalist murder probe
A Maltese businessman has been arrested as part of the investigation into the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia two years ago.
Yorgen Fenech was detained by armed officers after his yacht was intercepted and searched.
It comes a day after PM Joseph Muscat said he would consider a pardon for the alleged middleman in the case.
...
Its report said 17 Black had been expected to make large monthly payments to secret Panama companies owned by senior Maltese officials and had also received large sums of money from an Azerbaijani national.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-50485721
Yorgen Fenech was detained by armed officers after his yacht was intercepted and searched.
It comes a day after PM Joseph Muscat said he would consider a pardon for the alleged middleman in the case.
...
Its report said 17 Black had been expected to make large monthly payments to secret Panama companies owned by senior Maltese officials and had also received large sums of money from an Azerbaijani national.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-50485721
More coverage:
One of the last investigations that Caruana Galizia was working on at the time of her death was a massive leak of data from Fenech’s business.
...
Galizia, whose work exposed corruption among Malta’s political and business elite, was killed by a car bomb in October 2017. Within a few weeks three men accused of planting the explosive device were arrested and are awaiting trial, but those who masterminded the murder are yet to be identified.
...
A subsequent investigation by the Daphne Project, a collective of journalists set up to continue Caruana Galizia’s reporting and investigate her death, reported last year that Fenech was the owner of a shell company called 17 Black.
Caruana Galizia had reported that 17 Black was due to make substantial payments into two other shell companies, registered in Panama, and belonging to two members of the country’s ruling Labour administration. The information had come from the Panama Papers, a leak from a firm of offshore lawyers.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/20/daphne-caruana-galizia-police-arrest-businessman-on-yacht
...
Galizia, whose work exposed corruption among Malta’s political and business elite, was killed by a car bomb in October 2017. Within a few weeks three men accused of planting the explosive device were arrested and are awaiting trial, but those who masterminded the murder are yet to be identified.
...
A subsequent investigation by the Daphne Project, a collective of journalists set up to continue Caruana Galizia’s reporting and investigate her death, reported last year that Fenech was the owner of a shell company called 17 Black.
Caruana Galizia had reported that 17 Black was due to make substantial payments into two other shell companies, registered in Panama, and belonging to two members of the country’s ruling Labour administration. The information had come from the Panama Papers, a leak from a firm of offshore lawyers.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/20/daphne-caruana-galizia-police-arrest-businessman-on-yacht
The yacht, which left the Portomaso marine shortly before dawn on Wednesday, was forced back to port and Fenech was arrested.
The businessman is a very prominent hotelier and director of the Maltese power grid.
...
Secret Panama companies owned by then Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri, the government chief of staff, stood to receive payments from 17 Black for unspecified services, according to a December 2015 email which was uncovered by Maltese financial regulators.
The email said the Panama companies expected payments of up to $2m (£1.5m) within a year from 17 Black.
https://news.sky.com/story/prominent-malta-businessman-yorgen-fenech-arrested-on-his-yacht-while-trying-to-leave-countrys-waters-11865428
The businessman is a very prominent hotelier and director of the Maltese power grid.
...
Secret Panama companies owned by then Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri, the government chief of staff, stood to receive payments from 17 Black for unspecified services, according to a December 2015 email which was uncovered by Maltese financial regulators.
The email said the Panama companies expected payments of up to $2m (£1.5m) within a year from 17 Black.
https://news.sky.com/story/prominent-malta-businessman-yorgen-fenech-arrested-on-his-yacht-while-trying-to-leave-countrys-waters-11865428
