Keith Schembri
| Keith Schembri | |
|---|---|
| Chief of Staff (Office of the Prime Minister, Malta) | |
|
Assumed office March 11, 2013 |
|
| Prime Minister | Joseph Muscat |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
6 July 1975 Cospicua, Malta |
| Political party | Labour Party |
Keith Schembri is chief of staff to the Prime Minister of Malta, Joseph Muscat. He managed the 2013 electoral campaign that saw the Labour Party elected with the largest margin of victory in Malta since independence.
Prior to his involvement in politics, Schembri established Kasco Holdings in 1996, a group of companies providing various services and products within the fields of graphic art and engineering. The group's flagship company is Kasco Paper.
Schembri was one of the Maltese individuals mentioned in the initial Panama Papers leaks in April 2016, together with then Minister for Energy & Health Konrad Mizzi. These revelations led to calls for Schembri's resignation from Government on behalf of the Nationalist Party Opposition, civil society groups and independent MP Marlene Farrugia, who attempted to table a no-confidence motion in Schembri. As Schembri was not an elected official, this motion was later amended to censure the Prime Minister, under whose employ Schembri falls.
Schembri first set up an offshore shell company in January 2011.
The setting up of trusts and offshore companies is quite common in Malta especially when one considers that the economy depends on financial services. 714 Maltese companies were listed on the Panama papers and included names such as Louis Farrugia of Farsons, who is also Chairman of the Strickland Foundation, which owns Allies Newspapers, the publisher of the Times, former PN Minister Ninu Zammit among many others. Maltese financial services companies were also included in Panama papers, as they provide financial services to non-Maltese nationals in particular FZD Trustee and Fiduciary Services, whose CEO was a former PN Minister Francis Zammit Dimech and EMD, which is linked to Richard Cachia Caruana, Malta's former Permanent Representative to the European Union under the previous administration.
Various insinuations were made against Keith Schembri. However, it was later revealed that the Nationalist Party owed KASCO, Keith Schembri's company €121,000, as they were unable to finance their daily newspaper immediately prior to the last general election. His intervention can be viewed as saving the Nationalist Party's ability to convey its own message during an election campaign. Kasco, had to even intervene to help Allied Newspapers, publishers of the Times, to finance their investments and keep the company afloat.
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