Daphne Caruana Galizia, a prominent Maltese (Malta) investigative journalist, was killed by a car bomb while out driving in 2017, shocking the international…
Daphne Caruana Galizia, a prominent Maltese investigative journalist, was killed by a car bomb while out driving in Malta in 2017, shocking the international community. Caruana’s attempt to expose collusion between business and politics was not successful, but a journalist fulfilled her dying wish and continued to investigate the scandal in depth, with a money trail investigation revealing that the major corruption case involved the Chinese Communist Party‘s Belt and Road project.
“This corruption case centers on three offshore companies in Panama that hide the proceeds of bribes, one from the prime minister, two from his chief of staff and three from ministers close to him.”
Caruana, a prominent Maltese investigative journalist, told this story after the publication of the Panama Papers in 2016, in which she accused Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and his wife of receiving foreign money. 2017 saw her expose the companies of wealthy businessman Yorgen Fenech as having colluded with the country’s dignitaries in politics and business, not expecting to be caught in a car bomb while She was killed by a car bomb while driving out.
Even the European Union described it as a barbaric act, and the international media were concerned, pressuring Malta to get to the bottom of the matter, and journalists to fulfill her dying wish to continue investigating the scandal.
In February of this year, the murder suspect formally pleaded guilty, and the lawyer said, “This plea is very symbolic, it’s the first Time that someone has admitted to killing her and been convicted.”
The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Program (OCCRP), in conjunction with Reuters, the Times of Malta and the Süddeutsche Zeitung, published an investigative report on the 29th that found a major corruption case in Malta involving China’s Belt and Road project, adding a new international dimension to the case with the suspected involvement of Chen Cheng, managing director of the Greater China resources business at Accenture, the China division of the international consulting firm. The case has a new international dimension.
The offshore companies that Caruana had accused of being owned by Malta’s former energy minister Konrad Mizzi and chief of staff to the prime minister Keith Schembri received bribes from two Dubai-registered companies, one from 17 Black in Fennec and the other from Macbridge. As journalists continued to expand the scope of the investigation and delve into the network of Macbridge, the entire investigation extended to China and a $400 million investment in Europe by its state-owned power company, Shanghai Electric Power.
Maltese officials and official records show that Chen Cheng, 43, from Shanghai, has negotiated investments in Malta and Montenegro (Montenegro) on behalf of Shanghai Power for the past 10 years.
And with the support of the Maltese government, Shanghai Power invested $400 million in a stake in Malta’s national power company, Enemalta. This investment was described by Maltese and Chinese Communist political leaders as part of the “One Belt, One Road” strategy.
Chen Cheng’s Family has established two companies in Hong Kong, both with business ties to Malta. The first company, Hua Dao International, paid 2 million euros to a Panamanian company owned by then Energy Minister Miki, who negotiated on behalf of Malta. The second company, called Dow’s Media Company, received €1 million from Fennec’s company, which was linked to the Montenegro investment.
Chen Cheng lobbied Malta National Power and Shanghai Power to jointly invest in a wind power project in Montenegro, which eventually led to the investment. However the substantial owner of this wind power project is a company held by Fennec, and the money obtained from this investment, which partially flowed into 17 Black, paid 1 million euros to Daozhi Media after the investment was completed.
Neither Chen Cheng nor Shanghai Power commented on the reasonable suspicion that Chen Cheng provided bribes to Miki to facilitate the entry into the investment. In a statement, Accenture noted that the company is taking the matter very seriously and is “carefully reviewing these allegations as they relate to one of our employees. We uphold the highest ethical standards in every market in which we operate and have zero tolerance for any deviation from those standards.”
Recent Comments