PN accuses justice minister of lying over ‘hidden’ commission to Henley

The Nationalist Party has accused justice minister Owen Bonnici of lying to Parliament, after it was revealed that Henley and Partners – the concessionaries of Malta’s cash for passports scheme – earn a 4% commission on the sale of government bonds to passport buyers.

In a statement, the PN recounted how Bonnici had told a parliamentary committee in March 2015 that Henley did not receive any commissions over and above the standard 4% they are paid on the €650,000 that main applicants pay for a Maltese passport.

@OwenBonnici lied 2 Parliament. Henley r being also (illegally) paid 4% commissions by Govt on sale of bonds, which he had denied. @PNmalta pic.twitter.com/zoMwbJIU7n

— Jason Azzopardi (@AzzopardiJason) November 17, 2016

However, the regulator of the Individual Investor Programme revealed in his annual report that Henley also earn another 4% every time applicants purchase the mandatory €150,000 in government stocks – the investment element of buying Maltese citizenships, along with a €350,000 property or annual €15,000 lease. This is around ten times higher than the standard 0.3% commission paid by the Treasury to licensed stockbrokers on Malta government stocks at IPO stage. In total, since the launch of the IIP, over €26.7 million in stocks were acquired, which left approximately €1 million in Henley’s pockets. Henley has so far pocketed an additional €5.8 million in commissions on the passports sold since 2014.

“The country’s corrupt clique kept this second commission hidden from the public," the PN said. "It is not only drowning in its own corruption scandals, but is also lying to Parliament in an attempt to conceal this corruption.”

The PN called on government to answer why it had kept Henley’s commission on the sale of government stock hidden, whether this second commission was legal, why Bonnici had lied in Parliament about it, and how much had been given in commissions to Henley so far.

In a tweet, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil called for political responsibility to be assumed, warning that lying in Parliament “crosses the red line”. 

Ministry's reaction

In a statement, the justice ministry accused opposition leader Simon Busuttil of having been overcome by political despair, following the publication of Henley and Partners’ annual report.

The ministry said that Busuttil could not bear to hear that Malta had already received more than €300 million through the IIP programme and that most of these funds were earmarked for social benefits.

“This is why the opposition leader started to invent new stories about lies and illegalities,” the statement read.

The truth, the ministry said, was that the government did not have any capital expenditure and only chose Henley and Partners after an open and competitive process.

The opposition leader was alone in complaining about the IIP programme, which had been approved by the European Commission, an independent regulator and the 140 agents that participated in it, the ministry said.