This is the full report in The New York Times/International Herald Tribune today
The original PDF is here IHT
FRAUD CASE CONTINUES TO STIR UP DUST IN BRUSSELS
BY JAMES KANTER AND ANDREW HIGGINS
BRUSSELS — When European Union health ministers met last July for an informal gathering in Cyprus, John Dalli, the official responsible for overseeing their work, appeared curiously stressed and tired.
He skipped a welcome dinner and was drawn and visibly fatigued during meetings the next day.
Colleagues, who knew Mr. Dalli as conscientious and focused, were mystified. But their questions were quickly swamped by far bigger ones when, three months later, Mr. Dalli, 64, was suddenly pressured to resign.
Investigators from the European Commission’s Anti-Fraud Office had concluded that Mr. Dalli, then commissioner for health and consumer policy, probably knew about an attempt by a Maltese acquaintance to solicit a multimillion-dollar payoff in exchange for help easing a ban on snus, a form of tobacco sold in small pouches and placed between the gum and lip.
Mr. Dalli, who strenuously denied any wrongdoing and who has never been charged, moved back to his home country of Malta, leaving behind him in Brussels a heated and still unresolved debate over what he knew, and did not know, about the affair.
What made Mr. Dalli so tired during those meetings in Cyprus, however, is now finally clear: He had flown more than 16,000 kilometers, or 10,000 miles, for a weekend in the Bahamas as part of a quest to move tens of millions of dollars.
Asked about the previously undisclosed trip on July 7-8 to a Caribbean island known for its secretive banks and sun-swept beaches, Mr. Dalli said in a telephone interview Friday that he had gone to meet unidentified friends.
He said he made returned at least once in the summer as part of efforts to arrange financing for a philanthropic project.
Barry Connor, a Bahamas resident who rented Mr. Dalli’s family a villa on the island, said he recalled being told by Mr. Dalli that he planned to transfer ‘‘large amounts’’ of money for an unspecified venture.
Asked about sums of up to $100 million, Mr. Dalli said that the money was not for him, that he was acting on behalf of other people who wanted set up a ‘‘trust,’’ and that the project was ‘‘very personal’’ and ‘‘very confidential.’’ Its purpose, he added, was ‘‘to help people in Africa.’’ There was nothing ‘‘out of this world’’ about the Bahamas visits, Mr. Dalli said.
He declined to detail the Africa project but said that while it ‘‘has not been set up yet,’’ the ‘‘process is still going on.’’ He specified that he did not have any accounts in the Bahamas.
On a follow-up trip to the Bahamas later in the summer, Mr. Dalli stayed at a four-bedroom villa rented at $8,000 a month. A copy of a lease seen by The New York Times showed that the villa, Seaview Beach, was rented by Claire Gauci Borda, one of Mr. Dalli’s daughters, on July 14, 2012.
Mr. Dalli, according to one commission official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, concealed his July trip to the Bahamas by telephoning to officials that he intended to spend the weekend in Malta to see his family.
The European Anti-Fraud Office, more commonly known by its French acronym, O.L.A.F., said that it did not know about the trip and that it would look into the matter, suggesting it could reopen its investigation. ‘‘As is usual practice, O.L.A.F. will duly consider any relevant new evidence, within its remit of competence,’’ the office said in a statement sent by e-mail over the weekend.
Even so, Mr. Dalli’s philanthropic mission does echo the description by Mr. Connor, the Bahamas landlord, of some of the family’s activities and their guests, some apparently from church groups in the United States.
‘‘Normally you get some people coming here with some sort of a scheme, and they’ve got investors and they’re all going to do this and do that,’’ Mr. Connor said during a telephone interview. ‘‘No,’’ he said, ‘‘they just had money coming and they were going to invest it into charities.’’
‘‘It was not like they were looking to make money — they were looking to spend money, which is the reverse’’ of what people normally are seeking when they arrive in the Bahamas, he said.
The case continues to kick up political dust in Brussels, where the commission insists it needed to pressure Mr. Dalli to leave to protect its credibility and its anti-tobacco legislation, which was under review at the time.
Critics have accused the commission of moving too swiftly to force Mr. Dalli out without any direct evidence against him. Some lawmakers in the European Parliament see this as a sign of how opaque and unaccountable some of the bloc’s institutions have become.
At the time of his resignation, Mr. Dalli said he was leaving because José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission’s president, would have dismissed him anyway, and he complained bitterly of being railroaded.
The case against Mr. Dalli represents a ‘‘gross misallocation of resources,’’ Ingeborg Grässle, a German member of the European Parliament, said in a statement in May, referring to the time and effort dedicated to the investigation by the anti-fraud office. The office ‘‘must stop its navel-gazing and cowboy style,’’ she said.
Ms. Grässle has been particularly critical of investigators for taping telephone conversations and taking what she described as procedural failings. She has also called for the director general of the anti-fraud office, Giovanni Kessler, to be suspended.
On Tuesday, the European Parliament, meeting in Strasbourg, will debate a revised rule book for the anti-fraud office that Ms. Grässle helped negotiate with E.U. governments. Ms. Grässle has also introduced an amendment, in light of the affair, that would allow a supervisory committee automatic access to completed investigations to ensure respect for the rights of people under investigation. The Parliament will vote on the bill Wednesday.
The European Commission has strongly defended the anti-fraud office and insisted that Mr. Barroso had no choice but to demand Mr. Dalli’s resignation on Oct. 16.
The case came to the authorities’ attention when Swedish Match, a company that makes snus, reported to the commission last May that a Maltese entrepreneur, Silvio Zammit, had asked for up to €60 million, or $78 million, in return for using his contacts with Mr. Dalli. In its report, Swedish Match included a recording of one of the requests for money made by Mr. Zammit to a tobacco lobbyist.
The aim, officials suspected, was to influence a legislative proposal on tobacco products — and in particular to seek an end to the ban on snus sales that covers all countries in the bloc except for Sweden.
Mr. Dalli, in the recent telephone interview, said he knew Mr. Zammit from his earlier career in Maltese politics but denied that they were close or ever business partners. He said Mr. Zammit worked as a political canvasser.
‘‘He was simply one of the helpers in an election campaign and I have hundreds of them,’’ Mr. Dalli said.
After the complaint by Swedish Match, the commission asked the anti-fraud office to investigate. Mr. Barroso received the office’s report on Oct. 15 and presented Mr. Dalli some of the findings at a meeting the following day.
The anti-fraud office closed its inquiry before Mr. Dalli resigned. Shortly afterward, it gave its final report to the Maltese authorities, who started their own investigation. The Maltese police said in early June, however, that they had found no evidence of wrongdoing and signaled that they had no reason to continue investigating, according to the Maltese media.
Mr. Dalli, a former finance minister in Malta and management consultant, is set to take a new role advising the Maltese government on the country’s hospitals. The job would involve ‘‘bringing the management up to scratch,’’ he said.
He said the accusations against him in Brussels were part of what he described as an elaborate effort to entrap him, led by the smokeless tobacco industry. He suggested that the aim was to bring down the bloc’s top health official and manipulate legislation.
‘‘There was a complete setup by the tobacco industry that O.L.A.F. didn’t even — didn’t even — attempt to investigate,’’ Mr. Dalli said. ‘‘They tried to construct a case around something to prove that something happened where nothing in fact happened.’’ ◼
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Is Malta Today sending a journalist to the Bahamas to prove that the evidence mentioned above was planted by OLAF and Gonzi?
AS I HAVE ALWAYS INSISTED, JOHN DALLI IS A CORRUPT POLITICIAN A LIAR AND A PERSON NOT TO BE TRUSTED. HE SHOULD BE MADE TO EXPLAIN WHAT SORT OF BUSINESS HE WAS CONDUCTING IN LIBYA, BAHAMAS AND QATAR. MORE EVIDENCE ABOUT JOHN DALLI’S CORRUPT PRACTICES WILL SURFACE IN DUE COURSE.
http://4th-one.blogspot.co.uk/
http://j-d-mee.blogspot.co.uk/
I need you in my team, Mr Ellul-Grech.
Here are some pics of the village they rented in Bahamas, nice place.
http://www.sirbahamas.com/eng/sales/detail/198-l-1838-5975bh/seaview-beach-house-cable-beach-cable-beach-np-
http://www.bahamasproperty.com/listing-Nassau-Seaview-Beach-West.html
Dalli’s hatred for Gonzi has destroyed him. On the other hand, Dr Gonzi, who in the last election campaign suffered the worst sort of character assassination imaginable, is swiftly being vindicated.
Or maybe not. It was Lawrence Gonzi who made Dalli minister. It was Lawrence Gonzi who kept him as PN member. And it was Lawrence Gonzi who made him EU commissioner.
Bad calls all the way. If Gonzi knew what Dalli was up to, then he is just as guilty, if not legally then morally.
This is not about hatred of Gonzi, it’s about love of money.
I have to disagree there. It is abundantly clear that appointing Dalli as Commissioner was one of Gonzi’s worst errors of judgement.
I admire Gonzi for his integrity and vision, but unfortunately he is a poor judge of character.
I suspect he is one of those people who always choose to believe the best of anyone – not a trait that helps a politician survive.
[Daphne – On the contrary, it is my view that Gonzi got the perfect measure of Dalli, but chose to try exporting the problem. That was his error of judgement. It not only compounded his own difficulties, but spread them around.]
Johnny Chewbacca Dalli is addicted to money.
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=WmVXJ3hQrPo&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DWmVXJ3hQrPo
You’d never know. Perhaps Barry Connor, the Bahamas resident is part of the Evil Clique, the Oligarchy. Hallina DalliBA, the Psychiatric Ward at MDH needs you.
In other news: Here’s Labour’s famous hindsight kicking in.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130701/local/police.476235
I’m so glad that we replaced foresight with hindsight.
Malta needs its own anti-government protests. But we have always been a nation of yellow-bellied castrated cowards.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-07-01/news/frankly-i-see-nothing-wrong-in-what-was-done-mallia-1966112768/
Il-hmar iwahhal f’denbu.
Time for the “psycho-social” certificates to be resurrected probably
Muscat knows.
John Dalli’s most trusted friend is Joseph Muscat. Did John Dalli confide in Joseph Muscat about this business in the Bahamas?
Want a bet he will slip out of this one too.
Daphne, how stupid was I to give him the benefit of the doubt?
If his business in Bahamas was above board why didn’t he inform Brussels that he was going there instead misleading them by saying that he was coming to Malta? Ghamel akkwist Joseph b’ Dalli.
U l-gahan imur ghal quddies biex jirringrazzja lil mulej talli Dalli nheles mill-akkuzi…
Are they sure that the money is from American friends? The money could be Swedish but may also belong to pro Gaddafi friends of Dalli living in Malta.
So, some people deal in pastizzi others in cars and boats.
J.Dalli deals.
in money,so what? what’s wrong with that.
It’s his line of business
After all so do banks and financial institutions..
There’s nothing wrong in dealing in money, as long as its legal.
Criminals deal in money too. So what? It’s their line of business. After all so do banks and financial institutions.
Tajba Johny Cash.
“To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself
And falls on th’other”
‘Macbeth’
To Johnny: Loosley translated, ‘When you stretch it, shit happens’.
Just like Joseph, Dalli delivers.
Bahamas was already mentioned back in February by a certain Edward Butters
http://www.ecita.org.uk/blog/index.php/dalli-doesnt-dilly-dally-on-the-way-out/
Poor Dalli, I’m sure he’d soon be calling that doctor again.
To call his doctor, so that he can phone ‘sick’ for work again.
What work conditions does Mr Dalli have with Mater Dei….. flexible hours to cater for his jet setting life?
It could well have been a philanthropic project. Charity does after all begin at home.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=482374715176693&set=a.233349896745844.58868.154671951280306&type=1&ref=nf
John Dalli is making the late Lorry Sant look like an altar boy
The authorities in Malta and in the EC have a duty to investigate on the basis of this report. He was an EU Commissioner when it happened, and he is a consultant to government now.
Then there are the obvious tax implications.
But please, do the work professionally, seriously and thoroughly and let us really respect justice above all. Hope we will not be deprived of knowing the truth. We are tired of excuses and half-baked and; unclear statements.
The Times of Malta are saying that Dalli and Zammit discussed the OLAF interrogation during their phone conversation on the 6th July, which they have both repeatedly denied. Dalli insists the first he knew of anything about the whole business was on the 11th July when OLAF told him he was under investigation.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130702/local/dalli.476300
If this Cyprus – Bahamas – Cyprus taxing round trip was for consultations only, why was it held on site in the Bahamas and not Cyprus itself or somewhere nearer or more convenient?
Why did his daughter or, to split hairs, a company managed by his daughter, rent a villa for three months in the Bahamas at USD 8000 a month?
Did John Dalli make any more trips to the Bahamas on his philantropic mission or was it a one-off when Silvio Zammit rang the alarm after his OLAF interview?
There are more questions than answers in this saga. After all, that’s how it has always been with John Dalli, a lot of shadows and shadowy dealings and an unsatiable craving for filthy lucre.
If there is a journalist out there who wants to make his reputation….. try look at how in a relatively short time John Dalli had signed to allow Genetically Modified crops to be sold within the EU.
How was he convinced so quickly. Did he have some friendly meetings back then too? Was he flying in and out of Brussels for short weekend breaks? Come on… do your jobs and investigate this too.
Quoting our dear Maltatoday:
When Dalli approved the cultivation of GM potato in 2010, the green movement argued that the move will result in an irreversible process of GM contamination of fields. The anti-GM lobby says this would lead to farmers becoming dependent on big-business GMO companies for crops and pesticides.
However, in 2010 Dalli was adamant that the authorisation posed no dangers to the health of European consumers because he claimed that all scientific issues, particularly those concerning safety for human health and the environment had been fully addressed.
Dalli stated on several occasions he was committed to building an active and transparent dialogue with each party interested with GM crops.
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/EU-Commissioner-Dalli-I-never-favoured-GMO-industry-20120116
So, two questions:
– where has all the money come from?
– what has it been used for?
Completely out of context, but had to share. Found on a Tshirt on eBay.
INEPTOCRACY: a system of Government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.
That should be made part of our national anthem.