Health Czar John Dalli has installed himself at Mater Dei Hospital with an assistant: his daughter

Published: July 16, 2013 at 11:41am

Dalli ethics

How much further are they going to take this charade? The man has no normal understanding of boundaries and good sense. In no possible scenario, even with no scandals brewed or brewing, let alone with such a big one involving that same woman, would somebody in such a senior position take his daughter along to meetings or use her as his assistant.

In public office, you just don’t take on your daughter as a sidekick. Fullstop.

John Dalli should not even be in that position himself, not with knowledge now public that the woman he met in the Bahamas, whose money he discussed handling, is a bigtime fraudster with multiple aliases and false passports.

But to take on his daughter, who is currently in the news in the very same scandal, on as his ‘Mater Dei reform’ assistant? I would say it’s unbelievable, but it really is not.

We’re talking about a man who, WHEN HE WAS A EUROPEAN COMMISSIONER, tried to sell the Malta government a power station made by a corporation he worked for as a fee-receiving consultant, reasoning that this was OK because he took their fees before he became a European Commissioner.

This is a man who, WHEN HE WAS A EUROPEAN COMMISSIONER, flew repeatedly to Malta to appear on the Labour Party’s television station running down the prime minister (his erstwhile rival) and the government of the country.

This is a man who, WHEN HE WAS A EUROPEAN COMMISSIONER, sneaked out of an EU meeting in Cyprus and secretly flew to the Bahamas and back in 48 hours, to meet with an international fraudster who uses several aliases and false passports while cheating people of their money. He may not have known the real identity of Mary Swan, or her real business, but that is hardly the point.

So no, we should not be at all surprised that John Dalli has got his daughter/s to work alongside him on the Mater Dei reform project, not with so many opportunities available for their input there.

Nor should we be surprised that Muscat took him on in the first place and failed to boot him out in the face of the shocking revelations and his renewed investigation by the European Commission.

We should instead be asking why he has Muscat by the proverbial wotsits.




48 Comments Comment

  1. JPS says:

    Well there is a saying in Maltese …. ”wiccu u ……”

  2. Vinzint says:

    € 500 fil-gimgha ohra tghid ?

  3. TinaB says:

    Unbelievable!

  4. La Redoute says:

    Is he still involved with Mary Swan or has she changed her name again?

    In a previous life as Emma Corbin she spent months under arrest in Switzerland while being investigated for fraud. This was shortly before she popped up in Cyprus as Nina Petros, where she screwed the Bishop of Limassol – figuratively – embroiling him in money laundering schemes involving war criminals and other salubrious company.

    • La Redoute says:

      http://www.hri.org/news/cyprus/cmpress/1998/98-10-03.cmpress.html

      Dilini also reported that the Bishop of Limassol Chrysanthos, recently had a “mysterious meeting” with a former Mossad agent, named Jacob Smoulevitch.

      The agent had been been arrested in Switzerland with the Bishop’s female friend Nina Petros and were both held in custody for 10 months, the paper said.

      http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/state-witness-deri-s-men-tried-to-trap-me-1.24089

      Deri’s people, says Shmulevitz, boasted they were behind Shmulevitz’s arrest in Switzerland, where he and his business partner Emma Corbin were investigated for alleged fraud.

    • curious says:

      It would be very interesting and also relevant to get to know how Dalli met Mary Swan.

      • La Redoute says:

        It would be very interesting and also relevant if a reporter asked him that question directly instead of skirting around the subject.

      • Kevin says:

        You would be surprised. Government positions always attract these kinds of fraudsters especially when access is to key decision makers is relatively easy.

        Fraudsters seem to follow similar patterns of behaviour. They usually appear out of nowhere making grand claims. These claims recurrently involve a “new” and failsafe way of making money and charity.

        I wasn’t at all surprised by the content of the various posts on the subject. To me, the claims made by Barry Connor in the interview Daphne posted a few days back are very credible.

        The key, of course, is having the strength of character to send them packing rather than going in cahoots.

      • La Redoute says:

        Here’s one of the more notorious cases brokered by the mysterious American woman who brought down the Bishop of Limassol.

        It involved scamming investors by getting them to buy into a fictitious market and then spiriting away the cash into a ghost bank account.

        http://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/09/business/the-markets-market-place-a-washington-lawyer-faces-sec-charges.html
        (…)
        Lawyers at the S.E.C. said that the case was not a novel one but provided an important lesson for investors. ”People need to focus on the quality of the investments they make, not the connections of the broker they deal with,” said Elizabeth Gray, an assistant director of enforcement. ”In this case, it turns out that they were both corrupt.”

      • La Redoute says:

        The late Bishop of Limassol, friend of Nina Petros, aka Emma Corbin, aka Maling Wan Suzara, and lately as Mary Swann/Lady Bird, owed US$6.5million in this case alone.

        FINAL JUDGMENT by Judge Royce C. Lamberth in favor of plaintiff SEC against relief defendant http://www.legalmetric.com/cases/securities/dcd/dcd_199cv01455.html#s63

        CHRYSANTHOS CHRYSOSTOMOU; directing relief defendant Chrysostomou to pay, within 10 days, disgorgement as follows: $2,000,000 to New World Industries, Inc.; $1,000,000 to Thunderbird Management Ltd; $500,000 to each of the following: Caarlos Jose Marques, Antonio Rui Malheiro and Jose ALberto Fonseca; directing relief defendant Chrysostomou to pay prejudgment interest to the aforementioned parties in the amounts specified in this order; directing relief defendant Chrysostomou to file, within 5 days of receipt of judgment, a sworn accounting of all funds, securities, etc.(N) (mon) (Entered: 06/05/2002)

  5. Osservatore says:

    With hindsight, we can now safely say that this man was never fit to be PN leader let alone PM.

    • Galian says:

      I remember Daphne reprimanding me (must have been a couple of years ago) when I said Dalli had done a lot of good for Malta’s economy and that he would have made a better leader than Gonzi. How right she was.

    • dutchie says:

      One can confirm now that he actually is a pure Mintoffian in:

      1) hoarding as much money as he can from everything around him.

      2) all these actions of his which Daphne reminds us of above, we deem unacceptable, but fit 100% in the Lejber culture.

      He really fits in with Brincat and AST.

  6. Bubu says:

    I don’t think I want to live in this country any more. I don’t even want to know how all this will end up in five years’ time.

    I’m seriously considering moving to some sane country and forgetting I ever was a Maltese national. The embarrassment is getting to be too much to bear.

  7. Min Jaf says:

    X’sahta giebu fuqna u fuqhom dawk kollha li ivvutaw Labour.

  8. Alexander Ball says:

    Someone has to be there to remind him to take his pills and tell him it’s time to have a lie down.

  9. Someone says:

    The title of the Otara Millionaires Club’s hit from ’90s springs to mind.

  10. curious says:

    Paranoia

  11. pablo says:

    If confirmation was ever needed that his daughters worked for him and not for themselves, and that the Dalli tail wags the Muscat dog, this must be it.

  12. Ta' sapienza says:

    On a different subject, I always thought you were taking the mickey out of Kenneth Zammit Tabona when you referred to his crush on Joseph Muscat. Seeing his piece in the Times today it would seem like it’s a total infatuation.

    [Daphne – I wasn’t taking the mickey. It’s obvious that he is very much in love with him. His admiration is complete and completely irrational. We are fools in love, as the saying goes.]

  13. maryanne says:

    I have often wondered what kind of relationship there is between Dalli and his daughters.

    Are they in any measure free to act on their own initiative where business is concerned? Do they always do their father’s bidding? What a sad life it must be for them.

  14. helen says:

    Xi dwejjaq ta’ familja. Minhabba fihom ma nistax immur quddies tad-9.00 am ghax iqaddes huh u niftakar f’huh tal-Bahamas, huh tas-sapun u issa f’uliedu ukoll.

  15. V says:

    Dalli went to the Bahamas (being an European Commissioner and without informing his superiors), he handled meetings as working together with Mary Swan, discussed project involving “billions” of dollars for “humanitarian” purposes.

    You posted information showing that Mary Swan is using a fake identity, that she was in jail for fraud and for using fake documents in other countries.

    Isn’t that illicit association.

    You posted information showing that Mary Swan was/is in Malta, obviously under a fake identity..

    What I do not understand is how this is not being investigated by the police or immigration.

    We have to assume that Dalli had more than enough time to take Mary Swan out of Malta already.

  16. zunzana says:

    Dalli’s daughter knows all her father’s transactions and dealings, and Mr. Johnny Cash is not going to trust anybody in his shady affairs.

    • TinaB says:

      That’s what I think too.

      John Dalli’s daughters must be the only two people who would never tell on him no matter what happens.

      Every day it’s getting worse.

  17. Paul Bonnici says:

    This also reflects the judgement of the PN, he was in their ranks long enough to realise what he is. Until he contested the PN leadership election.

    It surprises me that the LP gave this man a consultancy role.

  18. anthony says:

    When he became foreign minister, Dalli’s daughters set up a travel agency.

    I assume they will now set up a company that imports medicinals and hospital equipment.

  19. J.J. says:

    He knows no shame.

  20. silvio loporto says:

    THIS IS THE MAN, who could have saved the P.N from the humiliations it is now facing, But the than Big Wigs of the party decided to put him out of the way by sending him to Brussels.
    THIS IS THE MAN who offered his services to both the P.L. and the P.N. but as usual the P.N. were to arrogant not to grab the offer.
    ThIS IS THE MAN. who will put Mater Dei on it’s feet where it belongs after al these years of maladministration.
    THIS IS THE MAN who has proved himself by overcoming all the dirty insinuations that could have broken down anybody else.
    THIS IS THE MAN that we should all be proud of for being one of us.
    THis IS THE MAN that . all of us should look up to..
    THIS IS THE MAN that makes me proud of being Maltese.

    • Steve Forster says:

      Are you on Prozac by any chance, you numpty?

      • silvio loporto says:

        What I am or not, is irrelevant. what is important is that we are witnessing John Dalli”s come back. Something that I have been foreseeing for some time.

        All those who thought that he,like Gonzi, is now the past, are in for some surprises.

      • Kevin says:

        Silvio, you should have learnt by now that some surprises are nasty. Muscat had better get his act cleaned up before putting his foot too deep.

      • Catsrbest says:

        If he is on Prozac; surely, they’re not working. Or else he thinks so because they are birds of a feather.

      • Harry Purdie says:

        Good point, Sivio. You are irrelevant.

      • La Redoute says:

        They’re in for some nasty shocks, you meam.

    • pontius says:

      Are you for real or are you taking the mickey, which I think you you probably are. If on the other hand you believe in what you wrote, I take it that your IQ is on a par with that of a headless chicken.

  21. observer says:

    I’m glad – unfortunately – that the Dalli (mis)saga has again been brought to the fore.

    The ‘immigrants incident’ had overshadowed that train of even more deeply concerning criminal adventures – and which has brought, and is still bringing, so much shame on Malta.

  22. pazzo says:

    We could call it the Borgia family or clan.

  23. matt says:

    A weak press makes for weak democracy (and vice versa) with leaders getting away with this kind of thing.

  24. Neil says:

    Pigs at the trough – and the trough keeps getting bigger.

    This particular porker must be pretty damn confident that his back is well and truly covered by someone ‘on high’. He’s got more face than a kipper.

  25. Quo Vadis says:

    The Cyprus Mail at

    ——————————————————————————–

    Friday, October 16, 1998

    Bishop blames mystery woman

    THE BISHOP of Limassol Chrysanthos continued to dominate the front pages yesterday.

    Phileleftheros led with an interview of the Bishop, in which Chrysanthos blamed his plight on “mystery woman” Nina Petros who had been handling his business dealings. He said that she was “the brain” behind everything and admitted that his biggest mistake had been to trust her completely.

    He felt he had been left exposed by Petros, whom he described as the key in the case. She would come up with ideas and take care of all the correspondence. He also admitted to owning a flat in Athens and a house in London.

  26. Riya says:

    Instead of Labour carrying out an investigation on John Dalli with regards the allegations they have made on the HSBC issue they gave him and his daughter a very important position nearly the same level as a Minister. I am sure Labour owes John Dalli a lot and there is more to it because crime pays.

  27. Gladio says:

    J Dalli BA…THIS IS THE MAN

  28. Str8 says:

    I agree Daphne that John Dalli knows no boundaries. Also, he is either so powerful to get away with murder or else we are a bunch of idiots surrounded by super naive authorities that beleive anything.

    Or is it a case of two ways, two measures?

    halluna….

  29. Rita Camilleri says:

    And you know what the problem is?? li qisu xejn m’hu xejn, business as usual.

Leave a Comment