The European Union’s justice commissioner, Vera Jourova, will travel to Malta in the next few weeks to assess the country’s anti-money laundering process and to check in on the investigation of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

Over the last three years, two top families in Azerbaijan’s ruling elite used dozens of secret accounts in Malta’s private Pilatus Bank to transfer cash into Europe and funnel millions of dollars into investments in luxury property, hotels, and businesses.

The flag of Pilatus Bank flies from its offices in Whitehall Mansions in Ta’ Xbiex, Malta. Photo (c): REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi

New findings of the Daphne Project show that contrary to what Maltese Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi told the European Parliament in February, his offshore firms were planning to do business.

Before she was killed, Daphne Caruana Galizia was investigating Malta's citizenship for sale program. A new report shows the deep connections between profits from the passports and profits from the politicians.

A banner in the fields outside Bidnija, where investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was murdered six months ago. Photo (c): Dan Kitwood

The assassination six months ago of the Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia sent shockwaves around the world.

A tribute to Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, murdered six months ago. Photo (c): Dan Kitwood

Scores gathered in Malta on Monday to mark the six-month anniversary of the anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder.

Six months ago, Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was brutally killed by a car bomb just meters from her home. The investigation into her killing is ongoing, but there is little doubt that she was murdered because of her work. With a brazen, unapologetic and uncompromising style, she denounced corruption, nepotism, clientelism, and all kinds of criminal behaviors in her tiny EU member state.

The Forbidden Stories, OCCRP