Former European Commissioner for Health John Dalli has told MEPs that he will not be intimidated from pursing the director-general of the EU anti-fraud agency Giovanni Kessler, as well as the European Commission and the tobacco lobby which he says created the frame-up leading to his departure from the commission.

In a letter to the MEPs as a rebuttal to yesterday’s story in the International Herald Tribune, Mr Dalli said the report featured insinuations which he emphatically denied.

He again denied that he was trying to move millions of dollars to the Bahamas, saying these millions do not exist.

He also reiterated that on July 8 (when he was in the Bahamas) he had discussed the objectives of proposed philanthropic project to get an understanding of its pertinence.  No funding was discussed.

The main discussion during that time was an innovative cheap power generation system that would be very useful to be used in the project.

Mr Dalli said it was also not true that a villa was rented for his  family. The villa was rented by a company managed by his  daughter. It was used as a base for meeting people coming from the US.

Mr Dalli reiterated that he never had any bank accounts in the Bahamas.

“I am prepared to give a power of attorney to a trusted individual to make all the checks with any or all the banks in the Bahamas to verify this,” he said.

“I declared that I do not have any bank accounts in any other jurisdiction except in Brussels where I received payments from the Commission and in Malta where my pension payment is deposited.”

He said he was assisting  in developing a philanthropic project on a voluntary basis with funds coming from private sources.

“I fail to understand the relevance of this enquiry to my termination by Barroso from the  Commission. In the report sent by OLAF to the President  on the 15th October 2012, they assert that no money has ever changed hands between the participants in the SNUS affair, except for the €5,000 paid by Swedish Match to their Maltese Consultant.

“In July 2012, OLAF had already started its investigation and interviewed key witnesses. I do not think there could have been the slightest possibility that money would change hands after that,” Mr Dalli added.

“The Journalist told me that the rumours were coming from Commission Staff. If this is true, this it shows that the Commission is still intent to cast shadows on my integrity and are clutching at straws, resorting to these pitiful tactics when all the information that has been uncovered and that is being uncovered are raising serious questions in many quarters about the handling of  the OLAF investigation on the Swedish Match Allegations and about my termination by the President of the Commission.

“As to not declaring the trip, this was a private trip and my cabinet was informed that the trip was made.

“This new batch of conjectures and allegations which were published in the International Herald Tribune is nothing but an attempt to damage my reputation. Those who colluded in the setup that led to my termination from the commission had tried very hard to achieve this aim through forcing my arraignment by the police in Malta. Evidence is coming out of ferocious political interference in this regard by the administration that was voted out of office last March.

When this did not succeed, the same people are resorting to concocted stories like the one appearing in the International Herald Tribune today.

“Why today?

Is it after the media reports about email exchanges between the Office of the Prime Minister of Malta and Dr. GK on the 15th October 2012, when Giovanni Kessler presented his report to Barroso?

Is it after the media reports about email exchanges organising blogs against me by the same person involved in the Dr. GK emails?

Is it because next Wednesday, an important vote is to be taken by the European Parliament regarding stricter control on OLAF?

“In this case, the attempt to influence Members of Parliament through such a travesty should be unacceptable,” Mr Dallli said.

The European Parliament votes tomorrow on a report on the workings of OLAF.