Ex-European health commissioner John Dalli on Tuesday distanced himself from a former aide charged with soliciting a €60 million bribe to overturn an EU ban on Snus, a smokeless tobacco.
His former aide Silvio Zammit, who has since died, was charged in December 2012 with soliciting the bribe.
An investigation by Olaf, the EU’s anti-fraud office, concluded that circumstantial evidence indicated Dalli was aware of Zammit’s attempt to solicit the bribe from tobacco lobbyists.
The Olaf probe led to Dalli’s downfall as commissioner in October 2012.
He was only charged over the alleged bribery a decade later.
Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, Dalli distanced himself from Zammit’s alleged solicitation of the bribe.
“He had his own plan of what he wanted to do. I was not part of it. Absolutely….What Silvio Zammit said, it was his own doing. He was selling himself,” Dalli said.
Zammit was recorded soliciting the multi-million-euro bribe in a call with tobacco lobbyists.
Dalli welcomed the news that a Brussels court gave former Olaf boss Giovanni Kessler a one-year suspended sentence for illegally recording Zammit’s calls.
Snus makers Swedish Match had reported the alleged bribery to the European Commission in 2012, triggering the Olaf probe.
In their report, Swedish Match claimed a meeting about overturning the Snus ban took place on February 10, 2012. Dalli, Zammit and lobbyist Gayle Kimberley were present for the alleged meeting, Swedish Match reported.
According to Kimberley, Dalli had left the meeting and said all further discussion on the matter should go through Zammit, the Swedish Match report stated.
Dalli insisted during the press conference that he was not present for the claimed February 10 meeting.
He questioned why Kimberley had never been charged over her role in the alleged bribery attempt.
Dalli said Olaf own report confirmed he was not part of the bribery attempt.
He claimed Kessler, together with former police commissioner John Rizzo and current commissioner Angelo Gafa, “conspired” with a tobacco lobbyist to lie about the February 10 meeting.
“They knew I was not part of it”.
Dalli also accused his former commission boss José Manuel Barroso of wanting to stop the introduction of stricter tobacco laws that he was spearheading.
Secret BVI company
Fielding questions during the press conference, Dalli said his ownership of a British Virgin Islands company was for a Libya project “that fizzled out”.
Times of Malta exposed Dalli’s secret ownership of the company as part of a International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) investigation.
Dalli sought to muddy the reporting by claiming ICIJ is "sponsored" by Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros. He said Soros has pumped millions in supporting abortion.
The ex-European Commissioner said he never declared his ownership of the company in his annual asset filings as an MP because the venture “fizzled out.”
Dalli also downplayed his links to an alleged Ponzi scheme used to scam American pensioners out of their savings.
His two daughters were charged in connection with the scam in October 2017.
The case has registered slow progress.
Dalli was pictured with one of the alleged ringleaders of the scam Mary Swan during a lightning visits to the Bahamas whilst he was still commissioner.
He claimed his Bahamas visit was linked to an African charity venture that never took off.
Dalli’s former head of cabinet Joanna Darmanin had told an Olaf probe into the Bahamas visit that Dalli never showed any interest in charity.
Asked about this statement on Tuesday, Dalli dismissed Darmanin as a “perjurer”.