Former FIAU investigator Jonathan Ferris is standing by his statements that former EU Commissioner John Dalli had told him Egrant stood for ‘election grant’ and was owned by the Labour Party.
Mr Dalli again denied yesterday that he provided this information about the secret company.
“My client stands by what he told the Egrant magisterial inquiry under oath and his version of events there which he had repeated when he was called in for police interrogations following the publication of the report,” Mr Ferris’s lawyer, Kris Busietta told Times of Malta.
Details of what he had told the inquiring magistrate, Aaron Bugeja, who has since been promoted to a judge, were kept under wraps as the Attorney General had only published a few of the report’s conclusions.
The report had looked into claims made by Daphne Caruana Galizia and whistleblower Maria Efimova that secret Panama company Egrant belonged to the Prime Minister or his wife.
No evidence of this claim was found. Some of the conclusions which had been kept hidden included instructions to investigate Nexia BT partner Karl Cini for perjury, Egrant whistleblower Maria Efimova for calumny, Pilatus Bank’s operation in terms of money laundering, plans for the setting up of a Malta-China offshore partnership and former FIAU manager Jonathan Ferris.
According to Mr Ferris, before leaving the police force to join the FIAU, he had met Mr Dalli to inform him that he would no longer be investigating the Ponzi scheme involving his daughters, who are currently denying fraud charges in court.
“[Mr] Dalli told his daughter to leave so he could speak to me, he took me aside and said: ‘Listen here, and I am telling you this because I have never met someone like you in the police force. If you want to make some noise, if you want to know whose company Egrant is… Egrant is the company ‘Election Grant’. It is a company of the Labour Party.”
Mr Dalli later categorically denied this claim when asked by the magistrate and had denied ever speaking to Mr Ferris about Egrant Inc.
Yesterday, Mr Dalli stood by his denial, insisting when contacted that he had never discussed Egrant with the former inspector.
“I never told Ferris that Egrant belonged to the Labour Party. I have no idea whatsoever what this company is all about,” he said.
“The fact that Ferris used the same terminology – “Election Grant” – as that used by Simon Busuttil is obvious that he was repeating what he was brainwashed to say. I could never have used that terminology.
“I did not ask for the police to investigate Ferris for perjury – I believe he is a victim and is being used. I asked the police to investigate who is the instigator of this perjury and take action against him,” he said.