When Joseph Muscat appointed George Hyzler as Commissioner for Standards in Public Life, the appointment appeared at face value as correct and even against Joseph Muscat’s own interests. Here was a former Nationalist Party stalwart with extensive experience in law, who could undoubtedly inflict political damage on a corrupt Labour government as Commissioner for Standards while investigating its scandals. In fact, his report on Education Minister, Justyne Caruana regarding her corrupt contract to her boyfriend led to her resignation, and his report on Rosianne Cutajar’s illicit payments from Yorgen Fenech over a supposed property deal in Mdina led to her resignation as a junior government Minister.
Hyzler even recommended Justye Caruana for a police investigation, something which the police failed and refused to do. Prime Minister Robert Abela has recently condemned Hyzler for his damning report on Justyne Caruana. Hyzler did indeed take on the same Labour government that approved his appointment, but this was not expected of him by Joseph Muscat. George Hyzler’s son, Mark (George) Hyzler,ย had a deep relationship with Labour Party government officials due to his golden passport business with the Chinese, and for this reason, Joseph Muscat expected his father to be rather lenient with the government.
George Hyzler’s law firm, GVZH Advocates, then run with the participation of his son Mark Hyzler, was one of the earliest Maltese law firms that got into the golden passport business. In order to sell visa, residency and passport schemes to the Chinese, GVZH partnered with one of the largest Chinese firms catering to Chinese expatriates: Delsk Group, registered in the Cayman Islands and owned by Wang Jing. Delsk Group has a series of companies that it operates in various countries including Mediterranean Heart Malta Business and JWP Malta Ltd. which are registered in Malta. Wang Jing has also acquired Cypriot citizenship.
Mark Hyzler’s relationship with Labour Party government officials was layered via Delsk’s company that provided the capital to the company that provided visa and passport services to Chinese nationals in Malta, namely Hong Kong Qian Cheng Business Co Limited. This company made a series of payments to individuals involved in the Labour Party and the related government entities in 2019 namely, a total of up to ย140,000 in payments to Joseph Vella Bonnici who was head of Identity Malta from 2013 to 2018, and also a payment of around ย41,000 to Christian Borg for car leasing services. Joseph Vella Bonnici, who serves as a front for the Labour Party and the General Workers’ Union in various commercial matters, was investigated by the Police on various unrelated corruption charges. Through Joseph Vella Bonnici, various Labour Party associates and friends could lease out their properties to foreign nationals applying for Maltese passports at premium rates. Delsk even made payments to the Marigold Foundation and sponsored one of Michelle Muscat’s infamous swimming challenges.
The story is all too familiar in the rent-seeking regime of that time that still exists today. Ingratiating and being in business with the Labour government earned you faster access to bureaucratic processes. Approval stamps can come quicker via payments covered up by the traditional means of “consultancy services” and pretences of sliding doors. Mark Hyzler still seems to be in business with the Chinese and surely made more than a couple of millions of Euros profits providing them with his services. The Chinese being provided with visa and passport services in return are shrouded in secrecy under the current processes.
Surely, many of these Chinese applying for visa and residency services are simply trying to get their capital out of China, so it was strangely suspicious that the crypto arm of the Chinese conglomerate, 360 Group, had an interest in being involved in a meeting with Prime Minister Joseph Muscat along with representatives of Delsk. So far it’s unclear to me whether or to what extent Delsk and Liu Wei seem to have a relationship between them. Liu Wei of 360 Finance seems to be a very interesting person, apart from having been involved in various noteworthy initiatives in the crypto industry. His name is also listed in conferences organised by the CCP in 2013 on bitcoin and blockchain, but I still have to confirm whether he is the same person.
Certainly, Mark Hyzler seems to enjoy playing with fire. Apart from getting involved in what looks to be an irregular business with Labour Party officials, he’s also getting rich Chinese citizens to Malta with capital they should most probably not have got out of China. I’m sure many of his clients are immensely grateful for him and his services, especially now that Xi Jinping is urging them to repatriate their money amid the Chinese market’s plummet to all-time lows, not to mention Joseph Vella Bonnici and Christian Borg.
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