John Dalli accuses me of collaborating with money-launderers, blackmailers and Giovanni Kessler to lie about him

Newsbook, the news portal, asked John Dalli what he knows about 17 Black, the company used by those at the top to move money in and out of Dubai.

He replied by letter, telling Newsbook that he has no connection with the people mentioned (Joseph Muscat, Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi) or with any other politician or official of any political party in Malta.

(He’s beginning to sound like Keith Schembri in his letter to the PANA Committee. They’re both obviously having “psycho-social problems” again.)

Newsbook quoted directly from his letter: “Qatt ma kont parti minn klikkek. Għalhekk stajt naqdi dmiri b’onesta, effiċjenza u effikaċja. U għalhekk ukoll li jiena attakkat mill-klikkek li għandhom kilba għall-poter.”

In translation: “I was never part of any clique. That’s how I was able to carry out my duties honestly, efficiently and effectively. And that is also why I am attacked by cliques who are hungry for power.”

Dalli continued rewriting history by telling Newsbook that he left his position as European Commissioner after refusing to put a stop to the anti-tobacco directive (?) as Jose Manuel Barroso, then president of the European Commission, requested him to do.

We all know that he was given 30 minutes to clear his desk and resign after his close aide, Silvio Zammit, was found to have requested a bribe running into the tens of millions, from a Swedish tobacco company, and he was suspected of being complicit in that.

Newsbook also asked Dalli about his involvement in Tyre Ltd, the Maltese company administered by his daughters and his office, which is at the centre of investigations into how a group of American pensioners were defrauded of their life savings. The American pensioners all say that they wired the money to an account at HSBC Bank Malta’s St Julian’s branch, in the name of Corporate Group, which is Dalli’s firm.

Dalli told Newsbook in response that this is a story “maħluqa minn Giovanni Kessler u Daphne Caruana Galizia, bil-kollaborazzjoni ta’ nies rappurtati fuq ħasil ta’ flus, rikatatturi, u nies imbuttati biex jagħmlu rapporti foloz”. In translation: “made up by Giovanni Kessler and Daphne Caruana Galizia, in collaboration with people who have been reported for money-laundering, blackmailers, and individuals who have been pushed to file false reports.”

Giovanni Kessler is the head of the European Commission’s fraud-investigation unit, OLAF.

John Dalli says he has no connection with any politician, clique or political party, not even with Joseph Muscat, Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi.