The journalist who led the Panama Papers investigation into corruption in Malta was killed on Monday in a car bomb near her home.The question is: Just which story prompted the assassination? Two weeks before her death, she told the police that someone had threatened her.
Daphne Caruana Galizia died on Monday afternoon when her car, a Peugeot 108, was destroyed by a powerful explosive device which blew the vehicle into several pieces and threw the debris into a nearby field.
A blogger whose posts often attracted more readers than the combined circulation of the country’s newspapers, Caruana Galizia was recently described by the Politico website as a “one-woman WikiLeaks”. Her blogs were a thorn in the side of both the establishment and underworld figures that hold sway in Europe’s smallest member state.
Her most recent revelations pointed the finger at Malta’s prime minister, Joseph Muscat, and two of his closest aides, connecting offshore companies linked to the three men with the sale of Maltese passports and payments from the government of Azerbaijan.
Caruana was most famous for her work on the Panama Papers. Although her reporting targeted important figures in her own country, the Panama Papers scandal also revealed some of the financial skullduggery conducted by Russian oligarchs close to Putin.
There's a Trump connection to this tale. I'm not sure if that connection will prove important or tangential; further investigation seems warranted.
B, a longtime reader of this blog, sent in a long comment about the Caruana murder. I'm going to take the liberty of republishing b's words here, below the asterisks; I'll have more to say afterwards.
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Just please don't forget Malta.
Investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was murdered yesterday. To stress their point, the killers used a powerful car bomb. She had been investigating state corruption at the highest levels in that mafia-run island country, gambling, money laundering, and the Azerbaijani involvement.
Trump has had many business links with leading figures in Azerbaijan, including with Emin Agalarov (Trump even appears in this video) and the Mammadov family (Trump International Hotel and Tower in Baku).
Trump also appears to linked with Malta. At the beginning of last month, it was stated that the FBI's "Trump probe" would investigate the Maltese connection.
If I may be permitted a lengthy quote:
"As the (FBI) delves deeper in its investigation of US President Donald Trump's ties to Russia, it is becoming increasingly likely that the investigation will eventually reach Malta thanks to a web of over a dozen Georgian offshore companies set up in Malta."
"The US Department of Justice has tasked former FBI chief Robert Mueller to investigate "any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump," as well as "any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation".
"In the midst of this investigation, several companies registered in Malta, linked with a Georgian based company called the Silk Road Group could provide some insight into Trump's connections with Russia."
"The story centres on plans in 2011 to build a Trump Tower in the seaside city of Batumi in the Republic of Georgia. Adam Davidson from The New Yorker reported extensively on this deal, in which Trump was reportedly paid USD1 million, which involved the financial backing of the Silk Road Group."
"The company's indirect links with a Kazakh oligarch, who in turn has direct links to Russian President Vladimir Putin, could provide scope for the probe. Due to the dubious financial dealings related to the company and the direct links to Russia, it is thought that Putin has access to sensitive information related to Trump and the entire deal."
"A licence was granted to approve the building of a Trump Tower in Butami, and it was to be developed and financed by subsidiaries of the Silk Road Group. It is reported that the latter received a US$300 million loan from B.T.A Bank, the largest bank in neighbouring Kazakhstan. B.T.A Bank was placed in Kazakh's sovereign-wealth fund, under the directorship of Kazakh oligarch's Nursultan Nazarbayev's son-in-law Timur Kulibayev(...)"< "The corporate structure of the Silk Road Group, which is a holding company that controls dozens of corporate entities registered around the world, involves several holdings in Malta."
"The complex layers of shell companies registered in various countries made its way to Malta. The New Yorker cites an eight-million-US-dollar loan granted to Batumi Riviera Holding, BV, which is registered in Holland. Batumi Riviera Holding is then owned by Tbilisi Central Plaza, a company registered in Malta, which is owned by Susalike Holding GmbH, which is registered in Germany, to a Silk Road Group subsidiary."
"In addition to this, research carried out by this newspaper reveals that multiple other companies linked with the Silk Road Group are registered in Malta (...)"
"The lawyer of the Trump administration, Jay Sekulow, has been quoted as saying that the US Justice Department investigation must be as specific as possible, and that it would lodge formal complaints should it delve into Trump's business dealings in Georgia. He contends that Georgia is not Russia; however, opponents stress that Russian influence does not stop at Russian borders."
"Malta may yet again have its corporate service provision system come under fire through its links with the Silk Road Group."
Then later last month, Muscat came to New York and met Trump.
And now, a few weeks later, guess what? Muscat says he has asked the US FBI to help investigate the Galizia murder.
Looks like the FBI will have an interesting time in Malta!
Click here for murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia's blog.
There's a lot there. In May she even wrote about Tony Blair's work for both the Azerbaijani mafia state and the mafia prime minister of Malta, Joseph Muscat. That was the day after Blair's recorded "testimonial" for Joseph Muscat was played at the Maltese Labour Party's conference.
It's interesting how efforts are being made to damage-limit and control this story by stamping it with the word "Wikileaks", calling Caruana a "one-woman Wikileaks". Fuck Wikileaks!
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Cannon here. Boy, it's hard to recall a time when I was pro-Assange. Things sure have changed, haven't they? The rise of Trump has forced me to rethink all sorts of things.
B writes that Trump has many Azerbaijani connections -- in particular, with Arras and Emin Agalarov. We should not forget that Arras Agalarov and his son Emin (a pop star in Russia) played a key role in setting up the infamous Trump Tower meeting in which Donald Trump Jr. hoped to acquire dirt on Hillary. Remember? It seems quite clear that Agalarov functioned as a Putin go-between.
The Agalarov clan is also involved with a few ultra-mysterious business in New Jersey which I wrote about here. Remember...? "It is Art Company"? That "art company" was obviously a front for something -- but who knows what?
About the crime itself: Apparently, Caruana's muckraking attracted quite a bit of attention. Muscat's main political opponent, Adrian Delia, seems to think that the Powers-That-Be in Malta won't be able to conduct an independent investigation. Delia himself was the target of Caruana's reportage.
Caruana's blog indicates that she couldn't stand Trump (whom she accused of wearing a toupee), although her feelings are widely shared by other European journalists. I haven't yet found any indication that she had uncovered something new or shocking about the American president. Her final blog entry arrived about half an hour before her car blew up.
Here's an excerpt from that final post:
Former Opposition leader Simon Busuttil testified in court this morning, as did the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, that crook Keith Schembri, in the case he himself brought against Dr Busuttil for libel damages.It's quite possible -- perhaps likely -- that the Caruana murder has no link to any persons or scandals outside of Malta. However, her work on "shady" banks and the Panama Papers suggests that she could have been working on a larger story with international implications. Caruana didn't like Trump, didn't like the international far-right resurgence -- and she knew a great deal about Malta's ties to money laundering.
Mr Schembri is claiming that he is not corrupt, despite moving to set up a secret company in Panama along with favourite minister Konrad Mizzi and Mr Egrant just days after Labour won the general election in 2013, sheltering it in a top-secret trust in New Zealand, then hunting round the world for a shady bank that would take them as clients.
(In the end they solved the problem by setting up a shady bank in Malta, hiding in plain sight.)
His government salary is just peanuts to him, Mr Schembri said, because he has retained his companies and his shares and that is where he makes his money. But the way he is using his government influence to benefit his private business in Malta is entirely a separate corruption/trading in influence issue and is not an argument in his defence.
This New Yorker piece on Trump's "foreign deals" offers an intriguing tidbit which relates to the story excerpted by b, above:
The Silk Road Group, which was established in Georgia shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union, does not have a conventional corporate structure. It is a holding company that controls dozens of corporate entities registered around the world. In total, B.T.A. loaned the Silk Road Group three hundred million dollars, and these funds were dispersed among its many subsidiaries, making the money trail hard to follow. For example, an eight-million-dollar loan was granted to Batumi Riviera Holding, B.V., which was registered in Holland. Batumi Riviera Holding has reported having a sole asset: a company called Vento, L.L.C., which is registered in Georgia. That registration indicates that its creditor is B.T.A., which made loans valued at seventy-five per cent of the initial investment in the company. Batumi Riviera Holding, in turn, is owned by Tbilisi Central Plaza, a company registered in Malta. Tbilisi Central Plaza is owned by Susalike Holding GmbH, which is registered, in Germany, to a Silk Road Group subsidiary.Companies owning companies owning companies -- and none of them seem to be involved in the actual production of goods. Also see "The Malta connection" within this story.
Giorgi Rtskhiladze co-owns the Silk Road Transatlantic Alliance, a subsidiary that focusses on business deals involving the U.S. He brokered the Trump relationship.
Russian oligarchs love Malta's banks; see, for example, this story. A little Googling will uncover many similar examples.
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