THE PANAMA PAPERS | CAPITALISM AND CORRUPTION

THE PANAMA PAPERS | CAPITALISM AND CORRUPTION

Four years after the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, a journalist and blogger who led the investigation of the #PanamaPapers leak in Malta, a new inquiry has concluded that the state should “shoulder responsibility for her death”. The 437-page report does not directly blame the Maltese state for the orchestration of her murder, but it deems that an atmosphere of impunity was generated by the highest echelons of the government. This comes after a period of increasing instability in the country, which has been engulfed in corruption scandals, enormous levels of inequality, and utter incompetence in dealing with an increasingly dire refugee crisis.

Throughout her time as an investigative journalist, Caruana uncovered countless corruption schemes involving the country’s elites. Her independent blog was one of the most visited websites on the island, which placed a target on her back. For years, the ruling class and their political representatives had vilified her, launching propaganda campaigns to blacken her name. The involvement of the Maltese ruling class in the money laundering schemes uncovered through the Panama Papers leak was unequivocal, and Caruana was instrumental in establishing links between members of the Maltese government and shell companies such as Egrant. Caruana claimed that this company in question was owned by former Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s wife, although she was never able to prove it. Litigation is ongoing between Muscat and Caruana’s family regarding these claims, but two other members of Muscat’s cabinet, Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi, were indeed positively identified as owners.

In his testimony, Yorgen Fenech, a Maltese businessman implicated in Caruana’s assassination, pointed at Mizzi as one of the architects of the crime. The fact that such atrocious crimes have been committed on European soil speaks to the corruption entrenched in the governments of this so-called bastion of ‘progress’ and ‘civilisation’. The climate of impunity for the ruling class of Europe in its rampant conclusion has found its natural conclusion in the assassination of a journalist, the true culprits of which will likely never be apprehended.
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The tragedy of Caruana’s assassination and the lack of accountability for its perpetrators, serve as reminders of the brutality with which the capitalists and their enforcers deal with their opponents. Daphne Caruana’s efforts, albeit brave, proved futile in bringing the ransacking elites to justice. The Panama Papers proved that the capitalist system is corrupt by design. The list of beneficiaries of the more than 200,000 shell companies created by Mossack Fonseca included capitalists, politicians and private companies from every corner of the globe. It can only be assumed this itself is merely the tip of the iceberg, with many other culprits undoubtedly carrying on such schemes with impunity.

https://www.marxist.com/malta-the-assassination-of-daphne-caruana-and-the-corruption-of-the-ruling-class.htm