Economic Crimes Unit chief who has halted Claire Dalli’s prosecution was at university with her

Yesterday evening I reported on how charges were due to be issued against John Dalli’s daughters, Claire Gauci Borda and Louisa Dalli, only for the case to fall into abeyance, with the investigating officer at the Economic Crimes Unit resigning from the police force to take up a position at the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit instead.

The case is that of the defrauding of American pensioners of their life savings, using an account held by Corporate Group, a Dalli company, at HSBC Bank in St Julian’s. John Dalli was a European Commissioner at the time and his two daughters fronted the organisation, responded to emails and signed documents, making them liable at law while their father escaped liability.

This morning I was informed by sources in the police force that Inspector Jonathan Ferris, who investigated the case and had raided Dalli accomplice Marie Eloise Corbin’s (aka Mary Swan, Lady Bird) Sliema flat in May 2015, had concluded the investigation by November 2015 (13 months ago) and prepared the charges against Claire Gauci Borda nee Dalli and Louisa Dalli, ready for the process to begin for their indictment.

This tallies with the fact that four weeks later, on 22nd December, their mother Josette Dalli, who was just 61, died suddenly of stress-related causes. Their father, John Dalli, was in Dubai at the time and the funeral was delayed until his return.

The charges against Claire Gauci Borda and Louisa Dalli were never issued, and Inspector Ferris resigned from the police force some months later.

The same police sources told me this morning that Inspector Ferris had done his job properly and gathered all the evidence required for Dalli’s daughters to be prosecuted for complicity in defrauding the American investors. “But then the case was held up by Inspector Ian Abdilla, who heads the Economic Crimes Unit. After Ferris prepared the charges, Abdilla took over and the matter stopped there. Then Michael Cassar resigned from the post of Commissioner of Police, Lawrence Cutajar took over, and John Dalli’s daughters found themselves with even more immunity from prosecution.”

But there would have been serious issues with the head of the Economic Crimes Unit in this case even if there were no political interference. He was on the same small university course with Claire Dalli for two years in the late 1990s, which means they know each other personally and probably quite well:
Ian Abdilla and Claire Dalli – course group 1997 to 1999

Claire nee Dalli with her husband Adrian Gauci Borda, who also works for the Dalli family operations.