So now it’s out in the open

Finally, the press is able to report what several of us have known almost since day one of this mess breaking into the news: that it wasn’t Swedish Match which picked Gayle Kimberley, but Silvio Zammit who put her in touch with the company because she was sleeping with his best friend Iosif Galea.

We also knew that, precisely because she was so heavily embroiled with Iosif Galea, who is in turn heavily embroiled with Silvio Zammit, who is in turn heavily embroiled with John Dalli, her so-called work for Swedish Match could only have been a front for her real work for the other two or three.

But we couldn’t say anything back then because though we knew, we had no proof, and you can’t just come out and claim that a married woman with a young baby (or any other woman for that matter, but a woman in that situation is particularly vulnerable) is sleeping with X or Y.

I tried to say as much as I could on this website, even breaking the news of the Iosif Galea connection and uploading a photograph of Silvio Zammit, John Dalli and Iosif Galea on holiday together in Italy, but you can only go so far.

Despite that, I had one or two friends of Dr Kimberley’s mother ring me to defend her and protest her innocence, to say that she got involved in this matter because she is gullible and naive.

I was polite, but said that I reserved judgement on that because no woman in her late 30s is that gullible and naive unless she has spent the last 30 years in a nunnery, and that in any case Dr Kimberley, who I have never met, comes from a background that militates strongly against any possibility of naivete or gullibility in matters of the heart or business.

If Dr Kimberley and Iosif Galea had shared email and Facebook passwords, that must have been one hell of an affair. Most people don’t even have shared email and Facebook passwords with their spouses or official companions.

Now the police have said it in court, and The Times reports today:

WITNESS ‘BLACKMAILED OVER AFFAIR’

One of the key witnesses in the Dalligate case, Gayle Kimberley, told police that she had been blackmailed over what to say in court, Inspector Angelo Gafà revealed during his testimony.

Dr Kimberley, who was head of EU and International Affairs at the Lotteries and Gaming Authority while she represented Swedish Match in meetings with Mr Dalli, would not give further information.

But police understood this blackmail to centre around an affair she had with a colleague, Iosif Galea, a compliance officer at the authority.

The relationship is relevant as Mr Galea not only admitted to being Mr Zammit’s collaborator but also to betraying Dr Kimberley’s trust to alert him about Olaf’s investigation. Dr Kimberley was the first person to be interviewed by OLAF, at a hotel where she was staying in Portugal on work in June. She was accompanied by Mr Galea, who was not on official business. The investigators warned her not to tell anyone about the investigation.

She discussed the matter with Mr Galea and warned him not to tell Mr Zammit.

Mr Galea admitted calling Mr Zammit from Portugal then meeting him shortly after the couple returned to Malta. The connection between the three and the Dalligate saga goes back to 2011, when Mr Zammit first met snus lobby representatives in Stockholm.

Mr Zammit, Inge Delfosse from ESTOC and Rupini Bergstrom from Swedish Match discussed the restaurateur’s interest in importing snus. They explained this was illegal in the EU, apart from in Sweden. Mr Zammit bragged about his connections with Mr Dalli and even called him to discuss the ban briefly.

After that Mr Zammit called Dr Kimberley and Mr Galea, then proposed to Swedish Match that Dr Kimberley act as their consultant in Malta.

The firm asked for a proposal and after two months she made one asking for €5,000 for preparing a case to put to Mr Dalli on liberalising snus.

Dr Kimberly and Mr Galea had shared e-mail addresses and Facebook password, the inspector testified. Through this, Mr Galea accessed a document listing details of a meeting with Mr Dalli that Dr Kimberley sent to OLAF, and told Mr Zammit.