A report by the European Anti-Fraud Office OLAF about former EU commissioner John Dalli now forms part of the records of the money laundering case against his daughters.
A copy of that OLAF report was presented during proceedings when Louisa Dalli and Claire Gauci Borda returned to court on Friday for another hearing in the ongoing compilation of evidence that kicked off in 2018.
The two were originally charged alongside foreign nationals Eloise Corbin Klein, Charles Ray Jackson, Elizabeth Jean Jackson and Robert Mitchell McIvor, all pleading not guilty to misappropriation of funds, fraud, making a false declaration to a public authority and falsification of documents.
Allegations against the Dalli sisters concern an alleged $600,000 Ponzi scheme, which saw elderly American investors lose all their funds, with the monies wired to a company registered at John Dalli’s Portomaso address.
As proceedings dragged on, occasionally hampered by procedural difficulties, the case was re-assigned to magistrate Caroline Farrugia Frendo after the original magistrate, Aaron Bugeja, was promoted to judge.
More recently, Inspector Hubert Cini took over the prosecution from former lead investigator Inspector Yvonne Farrugia who was appointed as Malta’s European Prosecutor within the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Meanwhile, all four of the foreigners charged alongside the Dalli sisters have since passed away, the last being Eloise Corbin Klein who died earlier this summer.
A magisterial inquiry into her death had not still been wrapped up and, thus, a copy of the relative death certificate was not yet available, the court was informed on Friday.
However, Inspector Cini presented an original report of the autopsy.
He also presented a copy of the OLAF report concerning John Dalli as requested by the court.
Former police Inspector Jonathan Ferris, testifying earlier in the proceedings, had explained how investigations against the accused had kicked off upon a complaint from OLAF by means of a letter.
Proceedings against the two Dalli sisters will now resume in October when the prosecution is expected to produce some 11 witnesses to confirm documents as requested by the Attorney General.
Lawyers Stefano Filletti and Stephen Tonna Lowell were defence counsel.