The Nationalist Party’s rising star and criminal lawyer Joe Giglio effectively place himself in former prime minister Jospeh Muscat’s corner by rubbishing Egrant whistleblower Maria Efimova’s claims that Michelle Muscat owned an offshore company in Panama.
In an interview on Andrew Azzopardi’s talkshow on 103 Malta’s Heart on Saturday, Giglio described Efimova as “malevolent” and “manipulative.”
The former Piltaus Bank employee had provided information to assassinated journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia that the Panama company Egrant belonged to former prime minister Joseph Muscat’s wife.
Giglio previously served as the lawyer of Pilatus Bank in a court case against the bank over claims that it didn’t pay Efimova for two and a half months of work.
Unsurprisingly, Giglio’s comments drew the ire of his party colleagues, with MP Karol Aquilina and MEP David Casa accusing Giglio of insulting Caruana Galizia’s memory and undermining the whibsltblower.
Defending Pilatus Bank which was shut down by the European Central Bank in February 2018, Giglio said “I was approached by a group of people who were directors at a bank licensed by Maltese authorities” to take a case against Efimova who he said was “swindling the bank.”
He added that he was in possession of “substantial evidence”, including SMSes sent by Efimova herself, that her claims against the bank were baseless and that she had made false accusations and defrauded the bank.
Asked whether he believed her claims on Egrant,...
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