WEBVTT - Episode 7: The Bat Signal 0:00:02.240 --> 0:00:07.200 Malta's institutions are deliberately being undermined, weakened and destroyed to 0:00:07.280 --> 0:00:12.040 allow corruption and criminality to flourish. Those who voted for 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:14.320 this mess have a great deal to be ashamed of. 0:00:24.760 --> 0:00:29.240 Strasbourg. The European Parliament Clean Recession of twenty fourth of 0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:34.960 October twenty seventeen. Parliament President Antonio Tajani approaches the central 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:45.720 podium and signals for quiet. Comes as President. 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:52.560 Gome Chittadino, as a citizen com journalista, as a journalist, Volo. 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:54.840 Esprit used to express my indignation. 0:00:54.800 --> 0:01:02.480 Indign brutal at the brutal assassination Didne Gwana Galizi. 0:01:01.920 --> 0:01:03.360 Of Deafnite Karwana Galitzia. 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:11.120 This is not normal business for the European Parliament. It's 0:01:11.200 --> 0:01:14.320 rare for the Parliament to discuss an individual murder case 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:18.040 in one of its member states, but today it's happening. 0:01:19.280 --> 0:01:26.280 Quiborns her family and the galleries, her husband, her three sons, 0:01:26.680 --> 0:01:28.320 and I wish to say to them that we stand 0:01:28.360 --> 0:01:32.760 alongside them, along with thousands of Montice are demonstrated in 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:33.360 the streets. 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:38.640 The camera pans up to the observer's gallery, showing Daphne's widower, 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:43.440 Pisa and her three sons Matthew, Andrew and Paul, sitting 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:48.080 together dressed in suits and ties, blank faced, barely begun 0:01:48.200 --> 0:01:54.960 to grieve. It's just ten days since Daphne's murder. Daphne's 0:01:55.000 --> 0:01:57.800 middle son, Andrew, still remembers this speech. 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:04.120 Yes, I remember it. It's actually strangely nice to see 0:02:04.160 --> 0:02:10.120 this again and everaged it. 0:02:10.120 --> 0:02:13.040 It's impossible to imagine the strength that it must take 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:16.840 for the family to be traveling and campaigning for justice 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:22.079 before Daphnitely has even been buried. But this parliamentary session 0:02:22.080 --> 0:02:24.880 in Strasbourg does matter for us. 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:28.320 That was a turning point when we moved from grieving 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:29.320 to campaigning. 0:02:30.960 --> 0:02:32.639 It was a very conscious decision. 0:02:33.200 --> 0:02:37.200 It was against everything that our emotions were telling us 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:40.760 to do, so suddenly we were transformed from a grieving 0:02:40.800 --> 0:02:44.560 family into essentially professional lobbyists. 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:50.360 That switch from grief to campaigning is the first step 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:53.840 in a new and unusual strategy to bring Daphne's killers 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:58.080 to justice, a strategy to short circuit the usual channels 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:03.600 of Mota's compromised institutions and divided culture. But it takes 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:04.040 its toll. 0:03:04.639 --> 0:03:08.200 We were turning up with speaking points about the rule 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:11.240 of law in the country, about the corruption crisis, and 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:15.120 in doing so, we were in a way dehumanizing our 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:18.600 own mother. We were turning her into a case, and 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:23.880 we were turning ourselves into campaigners rather than grieving sons. 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:30.959 So far, we've heard about two routes for Dafnese killers 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:35.800 to be caught, First through the official police investigation, second 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:39.680 through political pressure from the protest movement in Dafnese's memory, 0:03:39.840 --> 0:03:42.800 the sit ins and marches in Valletta and the gatherings 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:45.800 at the Great Siege Monument, the sense of raw anger 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:49.720 among ordinary Matese people. But the family know that on 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:54.200 their own both these approaches are flawed, open to political manipulation, 0:03:54.720 --> 0:03:58.680 to corruption, to media blackouts and crackdowns by the Maltese 0:03:58.720 --> 0:04:03.600 government here in Strasbourg. On the international stage, the odds 0:04:03.680 --> 0:04:08.080 might be different here in Strasbourg Moreta's elite might find 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:10.480 it more difficult to stack the deck in their favor. 0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:16.320 Ultimately, this new strategy will produce breakthroughs in the case 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:19.240 that would never have happened otherwise, and will bring the 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:22.360 family close of an ever to finding out who ordered 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:23.440 Japanese murder. 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:32.560 No silin and we will not remain Sanscobert, we must. 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:39.159 See the perpetrators of this murder brought to justice. From 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:44.599 iHeart Podcasts, Topic studios and vespoci. I'm Manuel Delia and 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:49.000 I'm John Sweeney and this is Crooks Everywhere, Episode seven, 0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:51.160 The bad Signal. 0:04:59.080 --> 0:05:01.760 Sir Dafne is have decided to try and make this 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:05.440 a global story. I know from experience that isn't easy. 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:09.640 Foreign news, except for wars, rarely makes the front page 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:11.720 in London, Paris or New York. 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:14.880 And the family are painfully aware of that, aware that 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:17.560 the new cycle will soon move on from their mother's death, 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:19.720 so they have to strike quickly. 0:05:20.160 --> 0:05:23.200 I worked on the story of Daphne's murder for the BBC. 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:26.080 I knew that from the point of view of my bosses, 0:05:26.520 --> 0:05:29.760 this was a compelling story they wanted to cover, but 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:32.440 not one that could take up too much of the spotlight. 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:37.400 As the months wore on, the chances of identifying the 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:42.000 perpetrators seemed pretty slim. An unsolvable murder in a small 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:44.280 European country. Next item. 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:48.840 Please all that said, I think Daphne's family do have 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:50.120 one ease of their sleeve. 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:53.520 I've worked on a number of cases over the years 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:57.479 of campaigns for justice for journalists who have been killed. 0:05:57.720 --> 0:06:01.680 Robert Vincent works for Reporters with Borders, a charity that 0:06:01.800 --> 0:06:04.160 advocates for persecuted journalists around. 0:06:03.920 --> 0:06:06.400 The world, and I often work closely with families in 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:11.840 these campaigns. Not every family is able to speak out 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:14.320 in this way. In fact, the way that they've been 0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:17.320 able to organize and really sustain this effer over so 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:18.920 many years is highly unusual. 0:06:19.320 --> 0:06:22.680 The ace of the sleeve is the family itself, and 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:23.800 there's set of skills. 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:27.280 So Matthew was an award winning journalist. I think he 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:30.280 had already been part of a team that won a Pulitzer. 0:06:30.520 --> 0:06:34.600 And then there's Andrew Dafnie Middleson, who we've already heard from. 0:06:34.800 --> 0:06:37.520 Andrew is always known as the diplomat because he had 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:41.080 in fact been a diplomat for some time, and personality wise, 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:43.719 of the three, he is definitely the diplomatic one. He 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:46.760 is very kind and very gracious. 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:52.120 Paul, the youngest brother, was at that time living in 0:06:52.120 --> 0:06:55.760 London and later also became an award winning journalist and 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:57.760 the author of Dafnie's biography. 0:06:58.120 --> 0:07:02.919 So a diplomat and two journalists, all with international connections. 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:06.719 Dephnie's husband Peter and her sister Corinne are also essential 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:10.520 team members. He is a lawyer and she's a pr consultant, 0:07:11.040 --> 0:07:16.920 also useful skills. This is Andrew the diplomat, And what. 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:19.840 Me and my family realized very early on in Malta 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:23.640 was that international pressure was not only our only hope 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:28.320 because the domestic environment was just so difficult, but that 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:32.520 it was actually our most powerful lever, more powerful than say, 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:36.440 the opposition party, more powerful than what was left of 0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:37.520 the press in Malta. 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:41.120 But that raises the same question, how do you get 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:43.239 the rest of the world to care about a murder 0:07:43.240 --> 0:07:43.680 in Malta. 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:47.800 One possibility is the focus on the European Union's idea 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:51.600 of itself, the idea of Europe as a place of democracy, 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:54.680 rule of law, and freedom of the press, a place 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:57.160 where it matters if journalists are murdered. 0:07:57.520 --> 0:07:59.920 Malta is such a small country, it's so dependent on 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:01.560 new membership. 0:08:02.120 --> 0:08:06.040 Bluntly, we Maltese need Europe more than Europe needs. 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:11.200 Us, but so so dependent on international partnerships that it's 0:08:11.440 --> 0:08:17.840 a unique example where international pressure can actually overcome domestic resistance. 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:25.520 One really important example our economy depends on international finance 0:08:25.600 --> 0:08:28.920 being based here. And if the EU decides that Malta 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:31.960 is no longer a stable, well governed member of the Union, 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:36.640 or even publicly criticizes how the country is run, then 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:39.839 those rich international investors might go elsewhere. 0:08:39.720 --> 0:08:42.480 Which means a public tribute to Japanese's work in the 0:08:42.520 --> 0:08:46.160 European Parliament might have real financial consequences. 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:51.679 So the first weeks after Dapnese's death go by, the 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:55.360 street protests build, and at this point the FBI come 0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:58.079 in to investigate the forensic trail left by the killers, 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:03.280 and men like Melvin the Middleman, mister alleged Mastermind, and 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:08.600 the Georgia's become increasingly worried, gradually realizing that this isn't 0:09:08.800 --> 0:09:12.199 just another local car bombing that will ultimately be ignored 0:09:12.240 --> 0:09:12.960 by the police. 0:09:13.559 --> 0:09:17.040 And that's when Daphne's family decide to make solving Daphanese 0:09:17.160 --> 0:09:20.280 murder a global cause for journals. 0:09:19.760 --> 0:09:23.760 Everywhere and here Daphne's son, Matthew the journalist, has a 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:27.640 piece of luck. An international organization has just been formed 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:30.960 that was designed for exactly the situation. 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:34.080 An organization called Forbidden Stories. 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:40.200 The idea is that when a journalist is persecuted or murdered, 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:43.880 a global bet signal is sent out to other investigative 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:47.440 reporters around the world to take on the same stories 0:09:47.559 --> 0:09:49.640 and follow them to their true conclusions. 0:09:50.640 --> 0:09:54.480 Because we thought that the stories should not die with 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:55.120 the people. 0:09:56.160 --> 0:10:00.320 So by murdering Daphne, her killers are multiplying theumber of 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:01.920 reporters on the case. 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:05.079 Attracting even more attention to her work and her stories, 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:08.120 and seeing if those stories might yield clues as to 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:11.840 who wanted her dead, who the real mister allegit mastermind 0:10:11.960 --> 0:10:15.800 might be. The journalists that forbidden stories called their new 0:10:15.880 --> 0:10:22.120 journalistic coalition the Deafnite Project, and they start by digging 0:10:22.200 --> 0:10:25.600 deep into Dafnie's archive of old investigations. 0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:30.720 When Dafnit was killed, this was the natural thing to 0:10:30.800 --> 0:10:33.000 do after that was to say, okay, this is the 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:36.040 first case. This is what we have to do. Now, 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:38.880 this is our case. Let's try to assemble a team 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:43.800 of journalists. Let's go to Marta. Let's try to tell 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:47.480 her story. Let's try to see that the people who 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:52.160 killed her and who wanted her stories to die, that 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:54.920 they don't get away with that, that the stories are 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:57.000 still going to see the light of day, and that 0:10:57.000 --> 0:10:58.360 they're going to be punished. 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:05.920 The hope of the Deafney project is that clues to 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:09.920 her murder might lie in some of the stories she investigated, 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:14.400 and it turned out that hunch was correct. Within her 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:18.080 blog posts there is in fact a faint trail leading 0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:22.160 to the likely masterminds of her murder, and mister allegit 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:23.959 mastermind in particular. 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:33.560 Feb Second, twenty sixteen. If the Panama hat fits, wear it. 0:11:34.080 --> 0:11:37.680 But the clues are deeply buried. I remember when Dafney 0:11:37.679 --> 0:11:41.440 published this blog post eighteen months before her death, the 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:46.440 start of her most famous story. It was typical of 0:11:46.480 --> 0:11:51.760 her sense of mischief, being deliberately mysterious, playing with her public, 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:55.320 and it worked. You'd be repeatedly checking the block throughout 0:11:55.320 --> 0:11:59.880 the day to see if all had been revealed on 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:04.559 the surface. This post strangely seemed to be all about hats. 0:12:04.880 --> 0:12:07.480 Conrad Mitzi has found a hat that fits him. 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:10.720 It includes a large stop photo of a Panama hat, 0:12:10.960 --> 0:12:14.680 a kind of straw some hat. The text is made 0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:18.720 up of cryptic and sarcastic messages about a government minister 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:22.360 called Conrad Mitzi, Walter's Health and Energy minister. 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:27.280 Take this as a genuine warning, I am not at 0:12:27.280 --> 0:12:29.920 liberty to say more for the time being, because if 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:32.240 I were then rest assured that I would. 0:12:32.640 --> 0:12:36.000 Twenty minutes later I definitely posted another puzzle. This one 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:38.920 had a picture of acute lamb and a few paragraphs 0:12:38.960 --> 0:12:41.360 wandering out loud whether mister Mitzi would be eating New 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:42.559 Zealand lamb at Easter. 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:46.720 When I say I have an international, worldwide network of spies, 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:50.360 I'm not quite joking, but sadly I can't say more 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:52.960 for now, though I'm bursting. 0:12:52.520 --> 0:13:02.840 Too hats lambs. The government minister the truth was definitely 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:05.680 had got access to an incredible scoope through her son 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:13.520 Matthew's work. You might remember the Panama Papers, a huge 0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:16.960 global story where millions of confidential finds from a secret 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:20.360 of firm in Panama were leaked to the press. What 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:23.520 we now know is that Daphanie had got an early viewing. 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:26.920 The Panama Papers were a huge deal for the kind 0:13:26.960 --> 0:13:31.600 of work I do, investigations into corrupt regimes. They gave 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:35.720 us a roadmap to the complex global arrangements that super 0:13:35.760 --> 0:13:39.320 wealthy individuals use to keep their wealth secret, how rich 0:13:39.400 --> 0:13:46.120 crooks avoid taxes and sanctions and money laundering investigations and 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:50.600 journalists with questions. In my work on Putins Russia, the 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:53.760 publication of the papers was a game changer, one of 0:13:53.760 --> 0:13:57.520 those rare times where for a moment, a whole hidden 0:13:57.559 --> 0:13:58.640 world is revealed. 0:14:00.760 --> 0:14:03.800 One hundred and forty three politicians from around the world 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:08.520 were featured in the files, including twelve national leaders, from 0:14:08.520 --> 0:14:11.280 the then Prime Minister of Iceland to the then President 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:16.200 of Ukraine. But it wasn't just politicians. There were bureaucrats, businessmen, 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:19.600 minor royalty, even the Hong Kong actor Jackie Chan. 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:22.880 Of course, having a name churned up in the Panama 0:14:22.920 --> 0:14:26.680 Papers does not necessarily mean that the person committed a crime, 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:32.240 but it does raise some interesting questions about what they're 0:14:32.280 --> 0:14:36.040 doing with these secretive accounts. And the country of Panama 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:40.000 was significant because it was a tax haven with little regulation, 0:14:40.720 --> 0:14:44.200 a place which tends not to share financial information with 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:48.120 most other countries, a place where you can park assets 0:14:48.280 --> 0:14:49.600 away from prying eyes. 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:54.360 And Deafney's sneak preview revealed that the Panama Papers included 0:14:54.440 --> 0:14:59.240 significant information about Malta too. Health and Energy Minister Mitzi 0:14:59.640 --> 0:15:04.360 was featured in detail. Definitely had discovered that immediately after 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:08.880 being elected, mister Mitzi had created an elaborate financial arrangement 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:14.000 designed for secretly stashing assets outside Molta, a trust in 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:19.359 New Zealand containing a company based in Panama. Layers upon layers, 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:24.280 hence the references to New Zealand lamb and the Panama hat. 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:28.360 It looked exactly like something someone might choose to hide 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:30.840 large amounts of assets or funds. 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:34.400 The global financial equivalent of buying a brand new piggybank 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:39.360 and stashing it in a very very secret place, all 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:42.000 on the day you get a new job. 0:15:44.320 --> 0:15:48.800 February twenty fourth, twenty sixteen. Conrad Mitzi's so called shell 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:52.480 company was never declared to Parliament in his annual declaration 0:15:52.520 --> 0:15:55.600 of assets as a government minister, not in twenty thirteen, 0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:59.200 not in twenty fourteen, and not in twenty fifteen. And 0:15:59.200 --> 0:16:01.240 if he had told you that he had incorporated it 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:04.040 in Panama, the many hundreds of people who work in 0:16:04.080 --> 0:16:07.880 financial services in Malta and the entire political class would 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:09.560 know exactly why he did this. 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:14.560 These are expensive bigurebanks. They cost money to set up 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:18.080 and cost money to run. It would make absolutely no 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:20.280 sense for someone to use an arrangement like this on 0:16:20.280 --> 0:16:22.560 the other side of the world to store a nor 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:26.960 mil government salary, even a minister salary. This figure bank 0:16:27.280 --> 0:16:28.680 was built for something larger. 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:35.720 No accountant or financial consultant would ever advise a client 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:38.400 to incorporate a company in Panama if there are no 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:42.880 extraordinarily significant assets to hold, and beyond that, assets which 0:16:42.920 --> 0:16:45.440 the client wishes to conceal from the authorities back home. 0:16:46.160 --> 0:16:48.560 Conrad Mitzi is in government now, but he is not 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:49.840 going to be in government forever. 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:53.800 And daphnely didn't stop with mister Mitzi. 0:16:53.640 --> 0:16:58.560 February twenty seventh, twenty sixteen. Breaking now, Conrad Mitzi and 0:16:58.600 --> 0:17:02.600 PM's chief of staff Schmbrie have exactly the same asset 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:05.200 concealing structures in blacklisted Panama. 0:17:05.400 --> 0:17:08.520 Remember Teach Cambrie, the Prime Minister's chief of staff, the 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:10.800 man who would later meet Melvin the Middleman for a 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:12.280 dodgy job and a selfie. 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:16.359 The Panama Papers revealed that he also had a secret 0:17:16.400 --> 0:17:18.360 piggybank ready to be filled up. 0:17:18.560 --> 0:17:21.720 The agreements that made Schambrie beneficiary of his trust and 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:25.199 Mitzi's settler and protector of his were submitted together on 0:17:25.240 --> 0:17:26.200 the same date. 0:17:26.520 --> 0:17:29.240 The same date, which is to say, immediately after the 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:33.080 Labor Party in Malta, one power suggesting that this might 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:36.560 be a shared and coordinated effort to provide senior government 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:42.320 figures with a place to keep extra earnings, almost a 0:17:42.359 --> 0:17:43.280 perk of the job. 0:17:47.480 --> 0:17:51.000 There was a third asset concealing structure revealed by Dafne 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:54.520 another pigabank set up at the same time for a 0:17:54.560 --> 0:17:58.359 third individual, but in this case those involved had covered 0:17:58.359 --> 0:18:02.000 their tracks even better, That individual's name was not put 0:18:02.040 --> 0:18:04.879 in writing anyone in the paperwork that has been made public. 0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:08.639 One email says that the name will be communicated veribally 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:10.480 over a Skype video call. 0:18:13.359 --> 0:18:18.200 I mean nothing says honest democratic government like a secret 0:18:18.240 --> 0:18:22.520 financial arrangement owned by a person whose name can't be 0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:23.399 put in riting. 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:26.960 Yeah, probably not. An arrangement at your High Street bank 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:31.320 account would allow discovering the secret identity of the unknown 0:18:31.359 --> 0:18:34.080 third person. The man or woman whose name couldn't be 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:36.880 written down became a campaign in itself. 0:18:39.560 --> 0:18:42.200 So I think there's something we should address here. For me, 0:18:42.280 --> 0:18:46.720 the complexity of all these arrangements companies in Central America 0:18:47.000 --> 0:18:51.679 structures from New Zealand bank accounts without names is something 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:55.840 that makes this kind of story really hard to report on. 0:18:56.359 --> 0:19:00.359 And yet the secret bribes and kickbacks that politicians take 0:19:00.600 --> 0:19:04.560 and businessmen give affect all our lives more than we 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:10.800 realize this. Invisible money changes how our elected representatives act, 0:19:11.000 --> 0:19:14.879 who they obey, and twists and distorts the services we 0:19:15.000 --> 0:19:17.640 receive from governments. But I know that even when you're 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:21.080 used to decoding this kind of corruption, the complexity can 0:19:21.119 --> 0:19:22.200 be overwhelming. 0:19:22.680 --> 0:19:25.520 Which company is within, which trust or paid for? Which 0:19:25.560 --> 0:19:26.560 are holding vehicle? 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:30.040 And when I've realized this, none of this confusion, this 0:19:30.240 --> 0:19:34.159 fog machine is an accident. It's the whole point. The 0:19:34.240 --> 0:19:37.720 fog machine is wired to confuse the people who pay 0:19:37.800 --> 0:19:42.080 to hide their ill gotten gains. This way, they want investigators, 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:45.560 reporters in the public to lose the thread, to get confused, 0:19:45.760 --> 0:19:48.640 and to get bored, to give up, and to turn 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:53.080 the page to a simpler, clearer news story. And a 0:19:53.119 --> 0:19:58.160 lot of the time it works, and that allows the 0:19:58.160 --> 0:20:02.040 theft and corruption to and continue right under our noses 0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:04.280 all the bloody time. 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:07.440 And that is exactly how it feels trying to pin 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:11.520 down corruption in my country. You know it's there, sometimes 0:20:11.520 --> 0:20:14.480 you see something yourself, but so much complexity has been 0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:16.840 created around it that it's very hard to see the 0:20:16.880 --> 0:20:21.760 whole picture. And that was Deafney's genius and what made 0:20:21.760 --> 0:20:25.240 her so dangerous to certain people. She had the ability 0:20:25.280 --> 0:20:27.840 to dispel the confusion, to lay it out in terms 0:20:27.840 --> 0:20:31.639 that everyone could understand, and that gave the offenders nowhere 0:20:31.640 --> 0:20:38.800 to hide. Her writing about the Panama papers made her 0:20:38.840 --> 0:20:41.600 one of the most influential voices in the country. 0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:43.480 It's almost tangible in a sense. 0:20:43.800 --> 0:20:47.080 Here's Nicole Maelak, a journalist at the Multa Today newspaper. 0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:50.080 She was at university at the time. Definitely published the 0:20:50.119 --> 0:20:50.960 Panama stories. 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:53.639 Everyone was talking about this because how can you not 0:20:53.680 --> 0:20:57.720 talk about it when you have a minister your chief 0:20:57.720 --> 0:21:01.640 of staff implicated and having sort of these shady accounts 0:21:01.640 --> 0:21:04.120 and Panama everyone's talking about it. 0:21:04.560 --> 0:21:08.159 The opposition party called Defnie Discoveries the biggest scandal and 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:12.680 Maltese political history and anti corruption protest marches were held 0:21:12.720 --> 0:21:16.320 in the capital. Definitely attended as a hero. 0:21:17.160 --> 0:21:19.800 It didn't feel right to even like go to a 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:22.679 university lecture because I remember going to university lecture and 0:21:23.200 --> 0:21:25.879 the mood was there. We couldn't do this lecture because 0:21:25.920 --> 0:21:28.880 all this was happening there was such a monumental sort 0:21:28.920 --> 0:21:29.600 of crisis. 0:21:29.920 --> 0:21:32.399 For a moment it looked as though possibly the whole 0:21:32.440 --> 0:21:37.200 government might fall. But Prime Minister Joseph Mouscat didn't do 0:21:37.400 --> 0:21:42.920 what Defni and the protesters were asking for. He didn't cave. Instead, 0:21:43.160 --> 0:21:44.520 he stood firm. 0:21:44.720 --> 0:21:48.480 It raised eyebrows. Obviously on one hand, it's like, what 0:21:48.520 --> 0:21:51.639 are they trying to hide? Like have you having secrets 0:21:51.880 --> 0:21:54.520 companies and Panama's definitely not on when you're when you're 0:21:54.520 --> 0:21:58.720 a sing minister. The Prime Minister at the time didn't 0:21:58.800 --> 0:22:01.280 exactly them to resign or anything. 0:22:05.280 --> 0:22:08.160 Conrad Mitzi at first claimed that he had done nothing 0:22:08.200 --> 0:22:11.600 wrong in creating the Panama and New Zealand financial arrangements, 0:22:12.320 --> 0:22:15.560 but later admitted that he had not declared the arrangements properly, 0:22:16.000 --> 0:22:20.200 a breach of Multie law. His explanations for his intentions 0:22:20.200 --> 0:22:25.960 and aims continued to evolve, sometimes in contradictory ways. He 0:22:26.040 --> 0:22:30.200 eventually apologized in Parliament for his actions. In the spring 0:22:30.200 --> 0:22:33.879 of twenty sixteen, Mitzi was moved to a different cabinet post. 0:22:34.560 --> 0:22:37.040 Keach Cambri had a different set of explanations for his 0:22:37.119 --> 0:22:39.440 pig Bank. He said that his arrangements had been the 0:22:39.480 --> 0:22:43.440 result of decisions taken by his business advisers on his behalf, 0:22:44.359 --> 0:22:48.080 and he stayed in post. There was no apology for 0:22:48.160 --> 0:22:51.600 his part. Prime Minister Mouscart mostly handled the scandal using 0:22:51.640 --> 0:22:54.520 the classic strategy for a populist leader. When pushed into 0:22:54.560 --> 0:22:58.639 a corner, he claimed the whole scandal was invented, a 0:22:58.720 --> 0:23:02.240 media conspiracy and attack on his supporters, the real people 0:23:02.240 --> 0:23:05.320 of Malta sound familiar fake news. 0:23:07.680 --> 0:23:11.080 When someone accuses you of a great crime, you don't 0:23:11.080 --> 0:23:15.320 deny it. You switch on the fog machine. You create 0:23:15.480 --> 0:23:18.960 multiple versions of reality. Some masses of people get confused, 0:23:19.520 --> 0:23:23.240 and within those versions you get your creatures to deny it. 0:23:23.280 --> 0:23:26.320 Take Stalin's man made famine in nineteen thirty three, which 0:23:26.400 --> 0:23:29.760 kills so many people. No one to this day knows 0:23:29.800 --> 0:23:34.880 how many. No one knows because no one counted. Malcolm Muggridge, 0:23:35.040 --> 0:23:37.160 one of a handful of journalists who try to tell 0:23:37.200 --> 0:23:39.680 the truth about the famine, wrote, one of the most 0:23:39.760 --> 0:23:44.000 monstrous crimes in history, so terrible that people in the 0:23:44.040 --> 0:23:49.360 future will scarcely believe it ever happened. Likewise with Donald 0:23:49.359 --> 0:23:54.680 Trump and the insurrection against the Capitol. Likewise with Vladimir 0:23:54.720 --> 0:23:59.639 Putin and the murder of Alexey Navalni. Populists don't deny 0:23:59.760 --> 0:24:03.600 their crimes a switch of reality. 0:24:05.240 --> 0:24:09.360 And like Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, Joseph Muscat went 0:24:09.440 --> 0:24:13.480 on the attack. Pro government blogs and TV shows focused 0:24:13.480 --> 0:24:17.760 even more intensively on demonizing Daphne as an enemy of 0:24:17.840 --> 0:24:22.280 not just the government but of Malta itself. One recurring 0:24:22.359 --> 0:24:25.680 theme in pro government TV and radio was to describe 0:24:25.760 --> 0:24:29.359 or depict her as a witch, an evil older women 0:24:29.440 --> 0:24:33.800 with magical powers to harm others, particularly men. It's a 0:24:33.840 --> 0:24:35.840 method that's been used to put women back in their 0:24:35.880 --> 0:24:39.439 place for thousands of years, and it's still going strong today. 0:24:40.880 --> 0:24:43.840 But the approach of trying to discredit Daphne was harder 0:24:43.880 --> 0:24:47.520 to sustain when the International Panama Papers team published their 0:24:47.560 --> 0:24:54.680 own findings and confirmed everything that she had written. When 0:24:54.720 --> 0:24:57.920 Conrad Mitzi was eventually moved to a different post, Prime 0:24:57.920 --> 0:25:03.159 Minister Mouscat explained his DESI the Panama affair hurt us 0:25:03.200 --> 0:25:07.320 politically and personally. He said, although there was nothing illegal, 0:25:07.720 --> 0:25:12.320 we expect better behavior and definitely had some feedback for 0:25:12.400 --> 0:25:13.959 those who questioned her integrity. 0:25:14.640 --> 0:25:18.440 March second, twenty sixteen, excuse my language. Here, but nothing 0:25:18.440 --> 0:25:22.920 else will suffice in this ridiculous situation. Total bollocks. Why 0:25:22.960 --> 0:25:26.240 don't these just go on themselves? How I got the 0:25:26.240 --> 0:25:30.240 information is irrelevant. What counts is the information itself. These 0:25:30.359 --> 0:25:34.320 asset concealing structures, once open and totally secret, could be 0:25:34.440 --> 0:25:38.480 used for the receipt of bribes, kickbacks and backhanders. Give up, 0:25:38.800 --> 0:25:40.600 it's over, big time. 0:25:42.600 --> 0:25:46.160 Sadly, it wasn't over. It was only just the beginning. 0:25:46.720 --> 0:25:51.160