Tyre Limited, the gold-trading company that financed the rental of a Bahamas villa which hosted Mr Dalli, “has no formal connection” to the charitable initiative despite having invested considerably to coordinate the project.

At his press briefing yesterday, Mr Dalli said Tyre Limited, whose company secretary is his daughter Claire Gauci Borda, had acted as coordinator for the charitable initiative the former commissioner says he advised.

It served this function by helping bring together a group of wealthy international philanthropists who were interested in setting up a fund to invest in African commercial activities, which would pour part of their profits into poor communities.

However, one of its shareholders, Martin Zuch, told The Sunday Times of Malta that neither Tyre Ltd or his charity Give Hope International had a “formal” relationship with the charitable initiative. He said that if funds became available, they could be used to finance some of his charity’s projects.

Asked why a company would fork out as much as $92,000 to help coordinate an initiative without getting any formal commitments, Mr Dalli at first denied Mr Zuch had said his organisations have no connection to the charity but then argued the philanthropic project would be independent of any company.