Konrad Mizzi

MALTA’S MINISTER OF ENERGY AND HEALTH

PANAMA OFFSHORE COMPANY OWNED BY A FAMILY TRUST

Konrad Mizzi

RELATED TO

Malta

About

Konrad Mizzi is the minister of energy and health of the Republic of Malta. He was elected to Parliament in 2013 and became the deputy leader of Malta’s ruling Labour Party in February 2016. Given Mizzi’s quick rise, one pundit called the minister “one of the most successful politicians in recent history.” Later in February, following media reports, Mizzi announced he would close an offshore company in Panama owned by a New Zealand trust he had created. Mizzi said he had declared the company and said he was closing it in the interest of transparency. Malta's main opposition party has called for an investigation.

In the Data

In July 2013, four months after Mizzi joined the Maltese government, an accounting firm in Malta bought several Panamanian companies from Mossack Fonseca, including Hearnville Inc. In June 2015, Mizzi established a trust in New Zealand that is the shareholder of Hearnville. The beneficiaries of this trust are his wife — Malta's consul in Shanghai — and two children. In June 2015 Mizzi told Mossack Fonseca he would use Hearnville as a management consultancy and brokerage firm. On this last point, Mizzi said that he filled out a "standard category wording that was included in a template form which was part of the company acquisition process."

Response

A law firm representing Mizzi said the Panama company Hearnville Inc. was acquired "to hold a London property" owned with his wife. The company, which the law firm said has no assets nor bank accounts, was owned by a family trust under an arrangement recommended by professional advisers. The trust was registered in New Zealand, where the law firm noted trustees "are obliged to declare relevant information to the New Zealand tax authorities, who in turn will share this information with the Maltese tax authorities. The firm also said Mizzi "declared his interest in the Company and the Trust in his 2015 Ministerial Declaration of Assets at the first available opportunity." Mizzi has asked Malta's tax authorities to audit his financial affairs and has said that he will close Hearnville once it is complete.

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