Dalli says Bahamas landlord used to send threatening e-mails to his daughter

John Dalli in a statement issued by his daughter Claire, said this afternoon that the landlord of a house where he had stayed in the Bahamas had sent threatening e-mails to his daughter after she turned down his efforts to set up financial transactions in Malta.

In a statement, the former Health Commissioner said:

"After relying on the lies contained in the allegations of Swedish Match to start an investigation by OLAF and then terminate me from the (European) Commission, the Commission is again basing itself on another lie in an attempt to gain credibility," he said.

"As the first lie emanated from a source that had a huge conflict of interest in the activities that I was working on in the commission, the second source is also very suspect."

He said that the report in the International Herald Tribune yesterday, which seemed to have been triggered by rumours coming from Commission staff, had relied on statements made by  Barry Conner (a person quoted by the newspaper).

Conner, Mr Dalli said, was the landlord of the house in the Bahamas rented by a group that used it as a base for meetings with counterparts mainly from the USA over a period of three months.

"Mr. Barry Conner used to visit the house practically every day and, at least when I was present, participated in the discussions that were taking place very openly about a philanthropic project that they wanted to develop. Mr. Barry Conner suggested that a trust he had in the Bahamas could be used as a vehicle for funds that would be received for the project," Mr Dalli said.

He said that Mr Conner travelled to Malta when he  was away. He wanted to organize some financial transactions.

"When my daughter was asked to help with this she tuned him down as the transactions were suspect."

After this, Mr Dalli said, on  February 13 a Mr Edward Butter posted a blog stating: 'Would anyone be interested that John Dalli visited the Bahamas with his daughter in Aug and Sept 2012. Rented a seaside million dollar mansion and had discussions with Bahamians about transferring tens of millions of $’s to the Bahamas?”

Mr Dalli added that between February 19 and March 3 Mr Connor started to send his daughter threatening emails containing the same false insinuations as in the blogs by Mr Butter.

"I believe that Mr Edward Butter is Mr Conner who wanted to spread these lies using a false name.

"The Commission again grasped the opportunity without checking the source," he said.