Police Commissioner Angelo Gafà promised to investigate all allegations of crime that come to its attention, including through the Pandora Papers revelations, which so far linked former European commissioner John Dalli to a secret offshore company.

“I can assure the public that every time an allegation of a crime reaches the police, an investigation is launched,” Gafà told Times of Malta on Monday when asked whether an investigation will be carried out into the revelations.

He said the country had a number of authorities and agencies tasked with investigating such matters and the police force was one of them. He said the police worked with these agencies including through the Financial Crime Task Force, he said.

Times of Malta, in collaboration with the International Consortium of Investigative, revealed how the former minister and European commissioner used nominee services provided by the Panama law firm Alcogal to conceal his ownership of the BVI company Westmead Overseas Limited. 

Proof of Dalli’s ownership of the shell company emerged from a new document trove known as the Pandora Papers, covering 11.9 million confidential records leaked from 14 different corporate service providers across the globe. It is believed that Dalli failed to declare an offshore account he held while he was an MP.

Owning an offshore company is not illegal in itself, although with Dalli’s history, the steps taken to conceal his ownership of Westmead and his failure to declare the company in his asset filings raise questions about its intended use. 

Dalli said that the company, which he says was never used, was set up to hold equity in an undisclosed project.

The former EU commissioner is expected to be formally charged in November over an attempt by his aide to solicit a €60 million bribe to help overturn an EU-wide ban on snus, a form of smokeless tobacco. 

At the time the alleged bribe was solicited, Dalli served as the European commissioner for health leading reforms to the EU's tobacco directive. He was forced to resign as soon as the claims were outed.