31 March 2017 in Valletta, Malta: Keith Schembri, then chief of staff in the office of Maltese prime minister Joseph Muscat.
On September 27, 2018, the then-tourism minister of Malta, Konrad Mizzi, addressed a tourism conference at the Hilton Hotel in St. Julian’s, Malta. Photograph shot on September 27, 2018.
Wednesday, the United States denied entry to two former Maltese government officials and their immediate families on the basis of corruption suspicions.
The move targets Keith Schembri, the former chief of staff to former Maltese prime minister Joseph Muscat, and Konrad Mizzi, the U.S. State Department said in a statement.
Ned Price, a spokesman for the State Department, stated, “There is credible evidence that Mizzi and Schembri were involved in a corrupt scheme involving the awarding of a government contract for the construction of a power plant and related services in exchange for kickbacks and bribes.”
Schembri and Mizzi’s representatives could not be reached promptly for comment. The government of Malta did not comment immediately.
In 2020, Reuters and the Times of Malta reported that an offshore company known as 17 Black Limited profited millions from a wind farm project purchased in Montenegro by Enemalta in 2015.
Mizzi led negotiations and multiple travels to Montenegro prior to the acquisition.
In an email obtained by Reuters, accountants for Mizzi and Schembri stated that the two men stood to receive payments from 17 Black for unspecified services.
Mizzi and Schembri have denied all allegations of malfeasance.
In 2019, he was accused of ordering the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was investigating the company. Fenech has refuted the charge and is currently awaiting trial.
