The seemingly ubiquitous John Dalli has been allowed to run riot, doing pretty much as he pleases, in Malta and Libya and heaven knows where else under the guise of various companies, for years. It was only when he was elevated to international prominence in the very important position of European Commissioner, and subjected to the scrutiny which that post entails, that he was finally caught out (though he is denying all allegations).

I was one of those who said at the outset that appointing him to that role was the greatest error Lawrence Gonzi ever made, while lobbying for the post (and then saying that he never wanted it and that he was a prisoner in Brussels) was the greatest error Dalli made if he wanted to continue his under-the-counter career with impunity. They both thought they were on to a good thing. The former prime minister thought that he had rid himself of Dalli when it should have been obvious that Dalli would carry on campaigning against him on Super One with no respect for his new position. And the new European Commissioner quite obviously thought that he had acquired a whole new world of opportunities for John Dalli & Associates, a massive networking platform and above all, credence for any approaches he made. Now he was no longer John Dalli, anonymous cabinet minister from the European Union’s smallest member state, but John Dalli the European Commissioner. The rest is history, and was oh-so-predictable.

A new story is emerging now, that is linked directly to Dalli’s secretive visits to the Bahamas in 2012 that are the subject of yet another investigation by the European Commission’s investigation body, OLAF. The huge sum which, he claims, was the reason for his visits to the Bahamas – he was liaising with a charity, he said, free of charge, to help them invest money in Africa - might well have been scammed in whole or in part from vulnerable and trusting members of a Christian group in the United States. Three years ago, when the New York Times reported that the sum in question was a hundred million dollars, Dalli – when he was asked about it –said that actually it was much more than that. He meant to impress, but got the opposite result. People began to ask even more questions.

Members of that Christian group said that they were told of an investment scheme in which their capital would go to helping good Christian causes through the funding of gold-mining operations in south-east Asia, with the profits going to the building of schools and shelters. They would receive a monthly cheque for the interest. Many of them turned over large sums of money, some even their life savings and retirement funds, on the basis of trust, having been told that this was a Christian charity operation. Some of the money was wired to the client account of Corporate Group Ltd at HSBC in St Julian’s. Corporate Group Ltd is one of John Dalli’s companies. Those who sent the money, believing they were investing it, at first received monthly interest cheques. Then, three years ago – around the time that Dalli’s visits to the Bahamas took place – the monthly cheques stopped. Ever since, these investors have been trying to find out what became of their money, but all attempts at getting information from John Dalli, from his daughter Claire Gauci Borda, and from ‘Lady Bird’ – the American woman who goes by a variety of other names and who is involved in this business, has met with no results. Many of the investors are elderly people who have lost their entire life savings and retirement funds, and who are now living off social security and the charity of their children.

 

This is not something I have written off the top of my head. These are people who have spoken to me, people who got in touch after reading the many pieces I have written about the subject of John Dalli, ‘Lady Bird’ and their charity runs to the Bahamas. Their money, their life savings, have gone missing. They went missing after being wired from the United States to a bank account in Malta. Whatever reason the prime minister has for protecting John Dalli and appointing him to his right hand as his consultant, he should stop it now. The man has got away with it for long enough. If the new police commissioner means business, and is not a perfect replacement for the Mallia puppet Peter Paul Zammit, he should start by investigating Tyre Ltd and its role in talking many trusting American Christians out of their life savings.