The EU anti fraud agency was informed about John Dalli’s stay in the Bahamas last November and passed on the information to the Malta police a month later.A spokeswoman for OLAF confirmed that Bahamian landlord Barry Connor, who revealed to the International Herald Tribune Mr Dalli’s trip to the Bahamas, had made a report in November.
She said Mr Connor informed the agency that “Mr Dalli’s family had rented a villa in the Bahamas for a year, from July 14, 2012” and that he had subsequent problems with the rental payment.
She said the information had reached OLAF after it had closed the investigation in October into the snus affair, forcing Mr Dalli’s resignation as commissioner.
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“As this information about the Bahamas rental did not appear to be related to the OLAF investigation, the agency dismissed the case on grounds it was not competent to intervene in civil disputes,” the spokeswoman said.
She confirmed the matter had been passed on to the Malta police on December 18. Attempts to obtain an official comment from the police were unsuccessful at the time of going to print.
However, sources confirmed that the information was received in December.
At the time, investigators were eager to interrogate Mr Dalli with a view to arraign him later.
He had travelled to Brussels and for months furnished the police with certificates showing that he was unable to travel or face “psycho-social exposure”.
The same sources said the material was investigated but there were problems of jurisdiction.
Moreover, a source pointed out, the police did not know about Mr Dalli’s trip to the tax haven between July 7 and 8, which coincided with the escalation of the OLAF investigation.
The anti-fraud agency spokeswoman said OLAF was not told about this earlier trip.
In fact, Mr Connor did not know either as he told Times of Malta he only met Mr Dalli in September.
The trip could be significant to the investigations concerning the snus affair because on July 6, 2012, Mr Dalli called his former canvasser, Silvio Zammit, and, according to police sources, the two spoke about the investigation.
Hours after this conversation, on July 7, Mr Dalli travelled to the Bahamas from Cyprus, only to return on July 9 because he was expected there for a conference a day later.
Mr Dalli denied that the July 6 conversation concerned the investigation and also insisted that the July 7 trip had been planned well in advance, as early as June.
mmicallef@timesofmalta.com