In a guest post published earlier today, Godfrey Leone Ganado, said he found that between June and September 2016 at least 81 downloads were made in Russia of Dato Capital’s file on Konrad Mizzi’s secret Panama company Hearnville Inc. Data Capital is an international company information service provider.
This high interest in Russia persisted through 2016 in spite of the fact that in February 2016 Konrad Mizzi had the Department of Information announce that Hearnville would be dissolved.
The interest from Russia is particularly significant and, excluding downloads in Malta (that would include the curiosity of people trying to figure out what Konrad Mizzi was hiding in Panama), is the highest country share of the 959 times the Hearnville file was downloaded from Dato Capital.
Godfrey Leone Ganado asks in his guest post whether the outstanding Russian interest is related to the Russian interest in Maltese passports. Identity Malta reports that some 40% of all passports it sells, are bought by Russians.
It is significant that the heavy interest in Konrad Mizzi’s Hearnville continued even after it was discovered its owner was a Minister and even after that Minister publicly declared Hearnville to be dormant and in any case not intended for commercial activity but to be “populated by assets” already in his possession.
Hearnville Inc would have been secret if it had not been discovered by the ICIJ in the Panama leaks. The fact that it was set up hours after Konrad Mizzi become a Minister in 2013 and the fact that the prime minister’s accountant Brian Tonna of Nexia BT set it up for him would never have been known were it not for the Panama leaks.
The fact that Konrad Mizzi is the only Minister in the European Union to have been discovered owning a Panama company would never have been known without the Panama leaks.
All that is frustrating enough. But the maddening thing is the Panama leaks did happen. And Hearnville remained in place to who knows what end. The maddening thing is Konrad Mizzi is still smiling.