Fraud and theft report filed with Malta Police, FBI and OLAF against John Dalli and his daughters

Published: May 9, 2015 at 8:56pm
Disgraced former European Commissioner John Dalli

Disgraced former European Commissioner John Dalli

One of Mary Swan's false passports, identifying her as a citizen of The Philippines. She is believed to have entered Malta, where she lived until last January, using a false Paraguayan passport.

One of Mary Swan’s false passports, identifying her as a citizen of The Philippines. She is believed to have entered Malta, where she lived until last January, using a false Paraguayan passport.

Seven US citizens who live in South Carolina have filed a report with the Malta Police, for fraud and theft, against disgraced former European Commissioner John Dalli and his daughters Claire Gauci Borda and Louisa Dalli.

Mrs Gauci Borda sits on the board of directors of Crystal Finance Investments Ltd, representing her father’s interests in this business he shares with Alfred Mifsud, the new deputy governor of the Central Bank of Malta.

The fraud accusations do not refer to Crystal Finance Investments but to another of John Dalli’s companies, Corporate Group Ltd, in which all the shares are held by his two daughters who are also the sole directors.

These US citizens – most of them elderly, some of them having lost their entire life savings – were persuaded to invest their money in a ‘gold pool’ operated by John Dalli’s close friend, client and associate Mary Swan, known as Lady Bird – who is the person he flew to the Bahamas to meet in July 2012 when he was supposed to be at a European Commission meeting, and then stayed with again, also in the Bahamas, the following August.

Mary Swan, who is American, uses a series of false names and passports and until last January lived and operated out of a flat in Sliema’s High Street. It isn’t known what passport she used to enter Malta, but the information I have is that it was Paraguayan. She had previously been imprisoned in Thailand for entering the country using a false passport identifying her as a citizen of The Philippines. She has a long history of scamming Christian believers who she meets and latches on to through Christian networks. Christian scams are big business.

The US citizens who filed the report were told to transfer the money directly to an account held by Corporate Group Ltd at HSBC Bank in St Julian’s, Malta. Corporate Group Ltd, they were told, would they handle the ‘gold pool’ investment for Tyre Ltd, a Maltese-registered company used as a scam vehicle by Mary Swan and held in the names of others.

The US citizens received cheques for ‘interest on their investment’ for some months, and then the cheques suddenly stopped coming and their money disappeared. They have been chasing Claire Gauci Borda and Louisa Dalli – via the intermediary, Debbie Wicker, who first talked them into the ‘investment’ – for information ever since, and have been repeatedly given the run-around. Debbie Wicker routinely visited Malta and John Dalli every month or so.

The US citizens were also told not to go to the police in Malta or the United States, or they would not see their money again. After more than a year of this, they finally decided that they had no choice but to go to the police. They have filed reports with the FBI in their home country, and with the police in Malta – directly to Assistant Commissioner Antoine Casha, and have copied the Attorney-General with all correspondence.

They have also reported the matter to OLAF, the European Commission’s fraud investigation authority, and have provided investigators with detailed information, correspondence and copies of bank transfers.