John Dalli denies link with $600,000 scam

Former European Commissioner John Dalli has rebutted reports connecting him to an alleged $600,000 scam involving eight American investors and a company that funded his Bahamas trip in 2012.

On Sunday, the Malta Independent claimed that eight American investors who have allegedly been swindled out of $600,000 wired their money to an account owned by Corporate Group – a company operated by Dalli’s two daughters – only to find out they had been “duped.”

Entitled ‘FBI, Maltese police asked to investigate company involved in John Dalli’s Bahamas trip,’ the article also said that it was initially understood that the funds were to be wired to another company tied to John Dalli.

“At the time of wiring the funds, our group was under the understanding that their funds were being wired to a company known as Tyre Limited, which is located in Malta and whose business address is or was John Dalli’s personal residence,” Michael Brady, the group’s representative, told the newspaper.

One of the investors also said that she was led to believe that Tyre Limited was involved as the wife Tyre Limited’s new director signed one of the payments. Tyre Limited made the headlines in 2012 after it was revealed to have financed the rental of a villa that hosted John Dalli while in the Bahamas. The company’s secretary was Claire Gauci Borda, the daughter of the former EU Commissioner.

In a reaction, Dalli insisted that he had nothing to do with the money transferred, and rebutted any suggestions of having been involved in a criminal act.

“This is an intentional dishonest distortion and invention. As were the many allegations that I rented the villa in the Bahamas myself for my family and that I was discussing investments of millions of dollars – all of which inventions have now fizzled out.”

Dalli also said that the article is a “continuation of the defamatory agenda propagated by the newspapers issued by Standard Publication,” and that the article is not only defamatory but “a conspiracy in extortion and blackmail.”

The former EU commissioner also held that the article is an attempt to “fabricate material that could be used by (Europe’s anti-fraud agency) OLAF in their farcical investigation about the Bahamas.”

Dalli also said that he is seeking to institute action the “conspirators in the appropriate court in the US,” and that he will be sending another complaint to OLAF chief Giovanni Kessler.