This is the woman who John Dalli had his meetings with in the Bahamas: Mary Swan aka Emma Corbin/Eloise Marie Corbin/Nina Petros/Myrna Klein/Suzara Maling – an international fraudster who uses false passports and has been arrested at least twice

Published: July 6, 2013 at 7:05pm

Mary Swan_Suzara

Mary Swan is the alias of an international fraudster who poses as an Evangelical Christian and makes millions by scamming gullible Christians in unsophisticated societies like the southern states of the USA and south-east Asia.

She sells them the line that she runs charities supported by business ventures in Africa – gold mining and so on – and that the proceeds are used to support children’s homes in underdeveloped parts of the world, or to set up more charities to help Africans, single mothers, or whatever else suits the occasion.

Faithful believers donate to the charity or invest in the ‘ethical business’, and the money disappears.

Mary Swan has used all the aliases I have listed above and has been arrested using at least two of them: as Nina Petros when she pulled a scam in Cyprus in 1998 and ruined the then archbishop of Limassol, and as Suzara Maling when she tried using this false passport purportedly issued by The Philippines, where she had been living.

She was detained at Bangkok airport, Thailand, for using a fake passport, and kept at Samutprakran Central Prison. Chutthrathipya Monthonkan, the Thai who was one of the original directors of Tyre Ltd (company secretary – Claire Gauci Borda) and who is still a director today, paid her bail and organised a private jet to fly her to Malta.

I have no information on what passport she used to enter Malta. What I do know is that she promised to pay back her debt in gold and never did.

That fake passport must have been a real act of desperation because there is no way a blue-eyed, blonde American matron with a southern accent is going to pass herself off convincingly as a Filippina.

In Malta, she is known as Mary Swan. She styles herself as Lady Bird and is addressed by Louisa Dalli and Claire Gauci Borda – John Dalli’s daughters – in their emails to her, some of which I have seen, as ‘LB’.

She is the woman who John Dalli, then an EU Commissioner, met when he left an EU meeting in Cyprus to go to the Bahamas, lied to his colleagues by saying that he had urgent family matters to attend to in Malta, then flew Cyprus/Malta/Heathrow/Nassau and back in 48 hours.

She is the woman for whom Claire Gauci Borda rented that villa in the Bahamas. She is the woman who stayed there with others from 14 July to the first week of September, after first staying at the Hilton in Nassau. She is also the woman who John Dalli, then still an EU Commissioner, had discussions with when he visited the Bahamas villa again in late August, and then again in the first week of September.

She is also the woman with whom (and others) he left the Bahamas on a private jet from Nassau airport at 1am, flying all the way past the United States and into Halifax, Canada, for refuelling before crossing the Atlantic and touching down again in Iceland before entering the European Union.

She is probably the reason why the jet couldn’t refuel in the United States.

Mary Swan, international fraudster and client of John Dalli, Louisa Dalli and Claire Gauci Borda, is now living and operating out of flat 4, 58 High Street, Sliema, running the shell/front company called Tyre Ltd.




105 Comments Comment

  1. Dave says:

    And we have the missing link

  2. Bob says:

    I do not believe John Dalli is naive, I know know he is a very dangerous person.

    Will bodies soon start surfacing?

  3. Joe Micallef says:

    I am expecting a mass self-flogging tomorrow in place square by most Maltese “journalists”.

    • ciccio says:

      Yes, and the mass to thank the Lord for the closure of this case is for the time being postponed.

      Details will be announced at a later date, after the closure of this little discovery, unless of course, there is another unforseen circumstance.

  4. Manuel says:

    There is now no avoiding it. Simon Busuttil has to give a press conference on the matter.

    • La redoute says:

      There is no avoiding it now. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat really must act.

    • etil says:

      No, not Simon Busuttil once John Dalli has switched his political allegiance to Labour. It is the prime minister who should do so. The prime minister telling us that he is ‘satisfied’ is no big deal.

    • chully says:

      No need to shoot somebody who is shooting himself.

  5. john says:

    And Joseph said this is all above board. Business as usual. Carry on Johnny.

    • La Redoute says:

      Joseph Muscat is a Labour prime minister. Of course it’s business as usual to him. He would say that, wouldn’t he?

    • Harry Purdie says:

      Remember the old war song, ‘When Johnny Comes Marching Home’?

      Did I miss the verse where he comes marching home with a criminal on his arm?

  6. Delta says:

    Is this the same woman?

    http://www.hri.org/news/cyprus/cmpress/1998/98-10-16.cmpress.html

    [Daphne – Indeed, she is.]

  7. Isn’t it about time that we had a comment from John Dalli, or his daughters, or the Commissioner of Police, on what you have been discovering?

    • La Redoute says:

      Isn’t it about time we had a comment from our Prime Minister as to why, despite all evidence to the contrary, he continues to behave as though Dalli’s appointment wasn’t a mistake?

      • I agree. But I would like to know first what information the prime minister is being fed by the persons whose duty it is to keep him informed.

        The way I see it, any person who deals with such a woman, especially if he tries to do it in a clandestine way, is either a knave or a fool. Malta dos not need such a person to be embraced by its prime minister who goes on to entrust him with serious administrative responsibilities which will involve the use of taxpayers’ monies.

  8. Village says:

    Hi frodista. Il-familja Dalli komplici f’money laundering u aktar jekk ghamlet it-transazzjoni fil-flus.

  9. Sapiens says:

    The more info that gets out the more it looks like this ‘philanthropic work’ is no more than an alias for laundering dirty money made from these Evangelical scams.

    In God We Trust … Halleluia!

    Presuming (with great difficulty) that the Dallis are innocent in all this, it looks like their consultancy firm carries out one hell of job in conducting their due diligence before on-boarding their clients.

  10. Denis says:

    What does the Commissionr of Police have to say about this?

    And the prime minister?

    • gorg says:

      Ditto for the PN.

      It seems that he is still a member of the Nationalist Party. The sooner the party cuts loose the chains the better

      • etil says:

        I may be wrong but no, the PN should not get involved.

      • carlos says:

        Once he has not paid his membership fee he is no longer a PN member. And it is a long time since John and other Judas paid their fees.

      • H.P. Baxxter says:

        Nevertheless, we expect a few words from Lawrence Gonzi, perhaps on his final speech to the house. Something to the effect of “John Dalli was my biggest mistake. Pullicino Orlando was by second biggest. And Franco Debono the third.”

        It would do more to restore his tattered reputation, and that of his party, than any number of GDP figures.

  11. Min Jaf says:

    And Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has not only appointed John Dalli to a responsible position in the Health Ministry when Dalli had been dismissed as EU Commissioner, but now knowing what type of person Dalli is and of the crooks and fraudsters he hangs out with, Muscat publicly declares his ‘satisfaction’ with Dalli and reaffirms his appointment.

    The only logical conclusions that one may draw about Muscat from all this are that Muscat is now completely out of his depth in running government and is desperately clutching at any straw; that Dalli has one sort of hold on Muscat and/or the Labour Party; or that Muscat is completely irresponsible or clueless or both.

  12. La Redoute says:

    MARIE ELOISE CORBIN

    http://casherman.qondio.com/international-black-listed-brokers-and-businessman

    CORBIN, Marie Eloise “Emma” a/k/a Nina Petros & Myrna Klein Little Rock, AR, USA & ‘Cypress’

  13. Gahan says:

    One thing’s for sure – she can’t enter the USA without being identified, because biometric passports can’t fail.

    Maybe she was on the plane with Dalli on his way back to Cyprus from the Bahamas.

    • La redoute says:

      She can’t enter the US. That’s why Dalli’s jet flew to Canada from the Bahamas.

      • Catsrbest says:

        If they flew to Canada instead of the US for refuelling because she cannot enter the US, it means that John Dalli and daughters know very well that this woman is fraudster and ‘Wanted’ in the US. Thus they are not naive but dishonest and unscrupulous persons.

      • La Redoute says:

        Well, yes. They went into business with Tyre Ltd’s current director who bailed the fraudster out of jail in Thailand for using a false Philippines passport.

  14. La Redoute says:

    What are the odds that quite a few people here (apart from the Dallis) have already been taken in by this scam artist and are now in fear of a) losing their money and b) being exposed as tax dodgers?

  15. G says:

    Muscat is satisfied, but it seems as if Ms. Caruana Galizia is not. Correct?

    [Daphne – I don’t think the prime minister is satisfied. I think the prime minister is more afraid of what will happen if he drops John Dalli than of what will happen if he doesn’t.]

  16. Neil says:

    And that buffoon of a PM we’ve had thrust upon us has (as expected) defended Dalli today. Although it was Dalli who broke it to the press, not the buffoon of a PM..

  17. Do not forget that John Dalli’s phone call AFTER his disgraced fall as an EU Commissioner WAS TO JOSEPH MUSCAT. Am I right in smelling a ‘big’ rat, or two?

  18. Alexander Ball says:

    So she could be one of Joseph’s famous illegal immigrants he has been ranting on about wanting to keep out lately.

    Call the cops.

  19. ken il malti says:

    It is awfully hard work to defraud the fraudsters.

    • Gahan says:

      Are you referring to the AMS phantom factory in Hal-Far where a fraudster was given red carpet treatment by Dalli when he was PS for industry?

    • Tabatha White says:

      Dalli isn’t the only one. Malta is where they come back to for protection. The ‘network’ rallies round such people.

  20. just me says:

    Daphne, you are simply brilliant.

  21. M... says:

    If she is in Sliema she had better hire a private yacht and move on fast before the US Embassy places an extradition order on her.

  22. Harry Purdie says:

    Amazing, just amazing investigative journalism.

  23. rpacebonello says:

    It keeps getting more worrisome by the minute. This latest, coming so soon after the PM confirmed that it is business as usual, raises some very serious issues.

    Who funded the Labour election campaign and why did today’s Speaker of the House feel uncomfortable with the party before the elections? Strange how most of the people have serious concerns about John Dalli but not the PM.

  24. ciccio says:

    Does Labour really think that we are not able to detect when something is really wrong?

    Joseph Muscat continues with the cover-up.

  25. Neil says:

    I wonder how long before Mr. German is looking for a new tenant.

  26. Min Jaf says:

    Mid dehra il-Lady Bird bamlitu wiehed min hawn sa ghadha lil John Dalli u lit-tfal tieghu. Jekk hu hekk xejn ma qed jiddispjacini.

  27. Paddling Duck says:

    All this drama make Dallas and Destiny seemingly uneventful

  28. Chris Portelli says:

    Imagine publishing this news a few months ago!

  29. anthony says:

    Thanks to Daphne, and Daphne alone, we now have a very good idea of what Dalli was, and is, up to.

    What we now have to find out is where Joseph Muscat fits in this debacle.

    This bit is going to be more difficult.

    If the PN emerges from its slumber maybe it can help throw some light on a mountain of filth.

    Dalli says it is business as usual with Joey.

    Therefore we expect to know what is in all this cesspit for Joey.

    Where and what is the leverage?

    • rjc says:

      In my humble opinion, it would be well for the PN to keep at a distance from all this.

      Let Labour and especially the PM face the barrage, which is growing by the day. There’s no credibility left in Dalli’s version of his ‘African Adventure’.

    • Michael A. says:

      Reform of the Health sector is now in the hands of John Dalli who is either knowingly collaborating with an international fraudster, or who has unknowingly been sucked into promoting an international scam.

      Either way John Dalli’s position is no longer tenable and he must resign or else be removed.

      A clear and unequivocal statement from Prime Minister Joseph Muscat is expected following the statements by John Dalli during yesterday’s media briefing.

      The PN in Opposition is duty bound to demand that John Dalli be removed from that office.

      Continued inaction on the part of PN can only lead to the perception that the dirt emanating from this filthy scenario also has some bearing on the party in Opposition.

  30. giraffa says:

    I don’t for one moment believe that Dalli is saying the truth, but must be worried now that he has not erased all his finger prints.

    One thing particularly bugs me – why did he have to hire a multi-million dollar villa in the Bahamas to meet somebody to set up a charity trust? John Dalli, when you are in a hole, stop digging. U hallina, tridx.

  31. thehobbit says:

    What are you saying? John Dalli was duped?

    • ciccio says:

      He may be paving the way to sell it to us that way later. Because after spending years in business, his profession, in politics, and as an EU Commissioner, maybe he does not know what a due diligence of clients is about.

  32. bookworm says:

    This is how true investigative journalism should be.

  33. caroline says:

    With all this info about this woman, shouldn’t the Police Commissioner have her investigated and arrrested? If not on fraud, then on using a false passport.

    As for Malta’s body-builder PM, maybe John Dalli has him by the balls.

  34. manum says:

    Why isn’t this woman well known for all this fraud? How come she is free to roam about?

    [Daphne – She is well known. That is why she has to use false names and false passports. She is free to roam about because – well, that’s what this story is all about, isn’t it.]

    • manum says:

      This is becoming too painful to read. Pirates of the Caribbean is suddenly becoming a reality.

      • Ta' sapienza says:

        Johnny Depp? Johnny Deep more likely, and descending at the rate of knots.

      • ciccio says:

        This Dalligate affair is becoming like a geometric theorem. In fact, Dalli’s explanation of his Bermuda Triangle business is like an attempt to square the circle.

  35. Riya says:

    I am sure that Joseph Muscat asked John Dalli how and where he met this woman. But obviously the reply is not to be known by the general public. Who knows why?

    The PL used to say that the PN Ministers were arrogant and never replied to questions put to them but now we have the Prime Minister in a serious criminal case and leaving the general public in the dark. What is the reason behind all this?

    • La Redoute says:

      Who’s to say that Joseph Muscat needed to ask how and where Dalli met this woman? He may have met her himself already.

  36. Gillian Camilleri says:

    Daphne, there are so many areas I do not agree with on your blog, or rather your approach to certain topics.

    Yet, I must congratulate you for a piece of brilliant investigative journalism here. Albeit ,yet to be officially proved.Aka police etc. the mind boggles and actually I am disgusted. Thank you for your unstinting work. Gillian Camilleri.

  37. gorg says:

    The press ( you excluded) is either on holiday or castrated

  38. Alan says:

    In an earlier blog-post of yours, I said that I was failing to see that there was a Bahamas scandal as such.

    My main point then was that although there were unethical happenings going on by the dozen, I failed to see anything that could remotely be linked to anything illegal.

    I take that back and eat my hat … and shoes … and socks.

  39. The Phoenix says:

    I don’t know why we are all surprised.

    Paraguayan passports can be bought.

    Paraguay is the most corrupt country in Latin America. That’s why it has hosted various criminals, including Nazi war criminals.

    This woman probably has a Paraguayan passport. Why would anyone do that, change names as frequently as changing clothes, and fly to Malta by private jet, to set up shop here, with impunity?

    Paraguayans need a visa to reside in Malta. If she did enter Malta on a Paraguayan passport, then who processed her application for a visa?

    And who signed the lease agreement with Karl German? Did ‘Mary Swan’ or Claire Gauci Borda obo Tyre Ltd?

    Why did Adrian Gauci Borda open the door there when Barry Connor came calling?

    I think this is all an elaborate setup to legitimize money “liberated” from Libya.

    There are so many “evangelical” Christians who turn out to be fraudsters. US Homeland Security, the FBI and the CIA have lists and lists, some with ties to organisations in Somalia that are fronts for other things.

    No wonder Mary Swan couldn’t land in the US.

    • Ta' sapienza says:

      Sounds plausible. Money liberated from ‘Africa’ returning to its original ‘owner’ after having a thin veneer of legitimacy added and a chunk subtracted by it charitable launderers and their victimised broker.

  40. Alan says:

    Bet you she’s already been rapidly carted out of Malta in the past 48 hours by her ‘friends’.

    Lord only knows what information this person has about so many things and the people involved.

  41. Ernesto says:

    I think Dalli might have begun to believe his own lies.

    • La Redoute says:

      He always did. How else could he function as a government minister while openly promoting himself as a consultant to anyone wanting to do business in Libya?

    • ciccio says:

      As long as he believes his own lies, it’s not a big problem.

      It’s when others believe him that we really have a problem.

      Especially when those others include the Prime Minister of Malta.

  42. Pandora says:

    Any serious politician would keep such a dubious character at arm’s length, but not our PM.

    This raises further questions and doubts, not just by the few Maltese people who can think critically rather than just swallow whatever they are fed by the government, but also by the international press whose interest is growing in what is turning out to be a “hot story”.

    Dalli’s arguments are just so childish and I really can’t believe the people investigating (the serious ones) would just accept them at face value.

    “There are no accounts in my name..” – yes we know (or can guess that) but what about those in his daughters’ names? Many businessmen transfer their assets to family members due to matters of liability etc. – that’s nothing new and should be elementary for investigators.

  43. Stella says:

    A lovely couple: Johnny Cash and Eloise Cash and Carry.

  44. Black Sheep says:

    Where did you get this from, if I may ask?

    [Daphne – You may ask, but in vain.]

  45. SA says:

    I believe that what goes around comes around and if Muscat is backing Dalli in all this he will eventually be doomed.

  46. Angus Black says:

    The bottom line is, John Dalli still has the unwaivering trust of our illustrious prime minister!

    Eventually, John Dalli may very well spell the end of Joseph as PM and leader of the progressive and liberal Labour Muviment.

    Wherever Dalli goes a tornado of destruction seems to follow.

  47. Alan says:

    Unbelievable.

    Almost 24 hours down the line, and not one single other on-line news source in Malta has published a single word on this development.

    Has nobody asked anyone anything ?

    Are they too busy looking into the mating habits of the Fifla lizards for tomorrow’s front-page ?

    It truly beggars belief.

    • Alan says:

      I mean, come on.

      You break what I consider to be the only tangible red-hot blazing smoking gun to date in this whole affair, and I ask, were there at least no wailing sirens at the door of 58 High Street Sliema ?

      Were the police too busy with their Saturday catering commitments maybe ?

      Did no journalist ask any local party involved for their comments to this breaking news ?

      The silence out there is worryingly deafening.

  48. C Falzon says:

    ‘Dr Mallia added that when he asked Mr Scerri for a statement, he not only provided this but procured “six affidavits of other people who were with him, some of them who are important in this country” . ‘

    Typical Laburist mentality.

    I wonder who these people are that are ‘important in this country’, perhaps some Billboard-Faces sitting on some Important-Government-Board ?

    http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130707/local/Why-say-sorry-for-doing-my-job-asks-MTV-security-chief.476897

  49. Dorothy says:

    Apparently JDALLIBAHAMAs found, as we say in Maltese, a “kappell jigih”.

  50. MM says:

    So … has John Dalli’s wish been granted 3 weeks later?

    “”Irrid li l-verita toħroġ kollha” — l-eks Kummissarju Ewropew John Dalli ” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mud4frgBS1Y

  51. Catsrbest says:

    In the light of this new and dramatic information, I believe that OLAF should reopen the case ASAP and ask the help of the CIA and the FBI. I believe that this woman might be on their ‘Wanted’ list.

  52. Rumplestiltskin says:

    Surely the police have acted to detain this woman ‘to help them with their investigation’, which we were told had not been closed. Failing to act immediately could see her leave Malta as Zeza Borg on a false Maltese passport.

  53. E.Camilleri says:

    Din haga serja hafna li ktibt.Tidher li ghamilt il-homework tajjeb. Nixtieq inkun naf jekk hux se tidher fil-gazzetti lokali dan kollu li inti ktibt.

  54. Denis Pace says:

    http://www.hri.org/news/cyprus/cmpress/1998/98-10-16.cmpress.html

    Is this the same person?

    [Daphne – The very same, yes.]

  55. anthony says:

    Dalli keeps company with people like Silvio and Mary Swan/Eloise Marie Corbin.

    The next thing we know, he will be blaming his imaginary persecutors for the suspect friends and associates he freely keeps.

    I just wonder what Joey feels about all this.

    So far it has been a deafening silence.

    Reminds me of the PL leader’s stance when thousands of Libyan citizens were being massacred just across the channel. When Lawrence Gonzi was bravely sticking his neck out.

    He sits on the fence.

    What a leader.

  56. Riya says:

    I hope the police will investigate this fraudster before she leaves Malta, as she is bound to do now.

  57. Catsrbest says:

    In a proper democracy and not in a mock ‘taparsi’ democracy this story should have brought this government down.

  58. Str8 says:

    May I ask if anyone can reply on whether John Dalli, despite acting as a professional consultant in setting up of a commercial activity with charitable purpose during his time when he was EU Commissioner (clearly in breach of his Code of Conduct), had done any due diligence at all on the promoters, shareholders, directors and all those involved in the proposed Bahamas trust business, including on the ultimate beneficiaries?

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