Gayle Kimberley, the Maltese lawyer turned prosecution witness in the John Dalli resignation affair, guided the lobbying attempts of the man facing criminal charges, according to e-mails seen by The Sunday Times of Malta.
The e-mails show Silvio Zammit, 48, receiving detailed feedback from Dr Kimberley on what he should say and write to lobbyists in Brussels.
But the lawyer, who had acted as the local representative for the tobacco company Swedish Match, always insisted with investigators that she had washed her hands of the whole affair after Mr Zammit allegedly asked for €60 million to help modify EU tobacco legislation.
The attempt led to the forced resignation of Maltese EU Commissioner John Dalli last October, rattling the EU’s executive.
According to a statement given by Dr Kimberley to the EU anti-fraud agency (OLAF) during their investigation, she recalled having been “very upset and annoyed with Silvio” for having put her in such a situation when he allegedly made this offer. “I made it clear to him that I was out of it,” she said.
But even after Swedish Match on February 21 officially told Dr Kimberley that the company was not interested, she partnered again with Mr Zammit in a second lobbying effort – the one which eventually led the Swedish Tobacco company to file a report with the EU, triggering the EU anti-fraud agency investigation and subsequent Maltese court case.
On February 29, Dr Kimberley’s husband, Matthew, forwarded a lobbying proposal to Mr Zammit, suggesting he should forward it to Inge Delfosse, the secretary general of the European Smokeless Tobacco Lobby (ESTOC).
“Silvio, suggest you forward this to Inge. Gayle is in copy. You may like to wait for her input before sending,” Mr Kimberley says in the e-mail.
Below the note was a proposal which offered meetings and lobbying services with the “Commissioner and his people, among other things”, and Dr Kimberley’s CV.
It also proposed the use of You Rock Ltd – Mr Kimberley’s marketing company – as “the vehicle through which the services will be provided.”
She defended herself, claiming she had simply asked her husband to forward the document to Mr Zammit because he was helping her out with a job at British American Tobacco and he had misused it to give credibility to his second lobbying attempts.
However, new e-mails being published today indicate Dr Kimberley was aware of how Mr Zammit was using her proposal and had even coached him in how to deal with ESTOC.
Mr Zammit forwarded the replies he received from ESTOC to the lawyer and her then lover Iosif Galea – who was also a good friend of Mr Zammit – and received feedback from her.
In one e-mail dated March 15, Dr Kimberley chided Mr Zammit for leaving the subject line of the e-mail exactly as he had received it from her husband. “Mela you left the title of e-mail “coy/past proposal”???,” she wrote. “I trust you followed up the e-mail with a phone call to explain to her as we discussed.”
She then proceeded to suggest the wording of an e-mail he should send to ESTOC. Mr Zammit did just that, and forwarded the message practically unchanged, but in his name.
The e-mails form part of a cache of data which was not available to OLAF or police investigators but which, Mr Zammit’s lawyers say, will cast a new light on the case.
In a judicial protest filed last month, Mr Zammit’s lawyers Edward Gatt and Kris Busietta went as far as alleging their client was “acting on Dr Kimberley’s instructions” when he asked for Swedish Match for the money.
Dr Kimberley’s lawyer had dismissed the claim as absurd. However, the police, which has treated her client exclusively as a witness, failed to respond to the protest, which demanded a re-examination of the case.
See full story in The Sunday Times of Malta.