Mary Swan, a fraudster who accompanied former EU Commissioner John Dalli on a number of dubious trips to the Bahamas in 2012 to discuss “charitable” investment opportunities, is likely to face justice in Malta.

Ms Swan, who goes by a number of different aliases, had her Sliema apartment raided in May following the launch of an investigation by the FBI and Malta Police into allegations that she defrauded a number of American investors through a company registered at Mr Dalli’s Portomaso address and run by his two daughters.

The Malta Independent columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia has reported that Ms Swan entered Malta with a false Paraguayan passport using the alias Eloisa Chihan.

She set up her base of operations in Sliema from where she ran a Ponzi scheme which is believed to have run into millions.  

She duped a number of elderly Christian investors in America into handing over their life savings in order to fund African miners who were supposedly unable to get financing from the banks.

Each of the eight investors wired their share of the money to an HSBC account owned by Corporate Group, operated by Mr Dalli’s daughters Claire Gauci Borda and Louisa Dalli.

The Malta Independent on Sunday asked the police for an update on their investigations into Ms Swan’s nefarious activities.

We were informed, however, that no such updates can be given in view of Article 112 of the Police Act.

This article states that the police are not permitted to give any details to the press about any suspects who have either been arrested or are to face criminal charges, with the latter case likely applying to Ms Swan given that she has already been questioned by the police.

In the meantime, it was reported on Friday by Mrs Caruana Galizia that Ms Swan’s Sliema apartment – which had been raided by the Maltese police back in May – was emptied of its contents, which were loaded into two removals trucks. Ms Swan was then whisked off in a private vehicle to an unknown location.

 

Pressure on investors to cut ties with Maltese police

Shortly after Ms Swan had her apartment raided by the police, the American investors received unsolicited emails from a Texan paramilitary group telling them that the Maltese police cannot be trusted.

The group – Guardian Angel Professional Military Corporation – claimed to be in the process of recovering the investors’ funds, but were hindered “by the corruption of files by the Malta Police”.

“Luckily, our initial review of the data in Malta was closing before the local police corrupted the files in the office of the Corporate Group,” the mystery ‘guardian angels’ told the investors.

One of the investors, Regina Hayes, told The Malta Independent on Sunday that the emails they received from the mystery outfit are clearly an attempt to isolate the investors from the police.

Ms Hayes says the police have been very helpful, and the investors have passed on all the evidence they have about the case to them.

The Guardian Angels PMC told investors that they will not be having any further contact with the police “due to numerous concerns from the lawyers and other US agencies”.

The investors asked the group for more information about their role in the whole affair, but no reply was given.

 

Group tries to exonerate the Dallis

The group also attempts to exonerate Corporate Group – saying the investors’ money never made it to the HSBC account administered by the Dallis.

“Tracking codes seem to indicate the funds disappeared on arrival in Malta’s central banking system – before transfer to the Corporate Group and Gold Pool participant accounts. As this indicates a potential fraud problem (outside the sender and inside the banking in Malta), we have requested a team of high-level bankers (from the sending banks) to review the transfers in detail and track the final destination of the funds.

“Again, in all cases, external professional forensic banking resources are being utilised to get the facts of what exactly is going on here in Malta – as this appears to be yet another potential corruption issue inside Malta’s financial system,” the Guardian Angel PMC told investors.

The Malta Independent on Sunday tried to contact the military corporation in order to enquire on whose behalf they are acting, but no reply was forthcoming.

This is not the first time that the investors have faced pressure not to cooperate with the police and go public with their claims.

In one email correspondence between the group of investors and the former EU Commissioner’s daughter, Ms Gauci Borda warns that involving “third parties would result in everybody losing everything”.

“On my part I would like to state that in the first place I empathise with your group and that is why I offered to help. Secondly, I am fed up with people trying to involve my family and me in these problems.

“You know the defamatory attacks on my father and therefore we do not take kindly to insinuations of involvement of my family in these issues. My father is determined to take legal action against any defamatory attempts,” Ms Gauci Borda threatened.

The Malta Independent on Sunday had a criminal complaint filed against it by Mr Dalli following a series of stories detailing the Ponzi scheme and the Dallis’ involvement.

 

The scam

Each of the eight American ‘Gold Pool’ investors wired their share of the money to an HSBC account owned by Corporate Group.

The investors were under the impression that the funds were being wired to Tyre Limited, which is located in Malta and whose business address is or was John Dalli’s personal residence. Claire Gauci Borda was also a director of Tyre Limited at the time.  

The duped investors only got to know of each other after they lost their money, as one of the conditions of investing was that the investment had to be kept quiet.

Tyre Limited was the company used to rent a Bahamas villa in the summer of 2012 to which Mr Dalli, then the EU’s Health Commissioner, made several undeclared trips. Mr Dalli’s other daughter, Louisa Dalli, was also a company director and accountant.

Mr Dalli rushed off to the Bahamas for a weekend in July 2012, shortly after he found out about an investigation by the EU’s anti-fraud office, Olaf, on his dealings with the tobacco lobby.

This was not Mr Dalli’s only trip to the Bahamas during his tenure as EU Commissioner. Mr Dalli met international fraudster Mary Swan in the Bahamas during another trip on 26-27 August 2012.

Photographs of the meeting show Mr Dalli slouched on a sofa with fraudster Mary Swan on his right and his daughter Louisa Dalli on his left.

Ms Swan was not the only fraudster present at this August 2012 meeting. Mel Tari, an evangelical preacher who was found guilty of conning an heiress out of half a million dollars, was also pictured with Mr Dalli.