Updated | Swedish Match lobbyist admits OLAF told him to stick to incorrect version of events

A stunning declaration by a Swedish Match official is set to rock the European Commission, six months after the resignation of Maltese commissioner John Dalli over allegations of a bribery attempt.

Johann Gabriellson, a Swedish Match official, admitted to Green MEP José Bové that he was instructed by OLAF, the EU's anti-fraud unit, to stick to a misleading version of events which placed Maltese lawyer Gayle Kimberley in two meetings with John Dalli.

Kimberley, appointed by Swedish Match to lobby Dalli on his revision of the Tobacco Products Directive which included a ban on snus tobacco, which Swedish Match produced, was revealed to have "made up" a second meeting she had with Dalli, to both the Maltese authorities and OLAF.

But in a declaration that Gabriellson made in a recorded, 81-minute meeting with Bové, the Swedish Match lobbyist revealed that it was OLAF that instructed him to stick to Kimberley's version of events.

Bové, who said he recorded the conversation with the permission of Gabriellson and a Swedish Match spokesperson to "be in line with World Health Organisation transparency rules", said the new allegation was a serious one that warranted a special inquiry into the European Commission's actions that led up to the resignation of John Dalli, who has since fallen ill over the past months.

"I don't know if you can see how serious this is," Bové told the press. "OLAF asked Swedish Match to keep to that version of events in the interest of the investigation, both in Malta and at European level."

Additionally, Bové said that the Commission had telephoned Swedish Match two days before Dalli's resignation on 16 October 2012, warning them of the impending press conference that would announce the results of the OLAF investigation, that had started back in May 2012.

"It is a pretty incredible situation. I cannot keep this to myself because I am an MEP and all this is far too serious. It shows a major dysfunction in the institutions...

"Kimberley did not meet Dalli... it is pretty surprising to say the least, because Kimberley never changed her story afterwards. I don't know why she made it up. She probably was trying to justify her fees."

The revelation throws a new light on the type of investigations conducted both by OLAF and the Maltese police, which have led to charges of trading in influence against Silvio Zammit, a Sliema businessman and former Nationalist local councillor, accused of soliciting a €60 million bribe from Swedish Match.

The bribe was said to have made to both Gabriellson and Gayle Kimberley at a meeting in his restaurant, where he said he could give them access to Dalli and reverse the ban on snus. It was then that Swedish Match broke off all contact with Zammit to report the matter to the European Commission in May 2012.

MEPs José Bové and Bart Staes said that a special committee in the European Parliament had to investigate the role of tobacco lobbying in the aftermath of Dalli's resignation, and that MEPs should be now granted access to both the OLAF investigative report and the supervisory committee's report on the investigation.

"Swedish Match went straight to [EC secretary-general] Catherine Day and it was Day who got OLAF onto the investigation... we ask, how did they manage to push this case so far, managing to get a Commissioner to resign within 30 minutes? We want an explanation from Day and Barroso," Bové said.

Dalli resigned on 16 October 2012 after EC president José Manuel Barroso presented him with a covering letter of OLAF's investigative report, which said OLAF had "circumstantial evidence" that he was aware of a bribery attempt to reverse the snus ban. Dalli was not given access to the report, which has so far only been handed to the Maltese Attorney General and the police.

After his resignation, MaltaToday had revealed back in October 2012 that Gabriellson and Kimberley had respectively been employed at the European Commission and the European Council: when Kimberley returned to Malta as a lawyer for the gaming authority (LGA), Gabriellson reportedly asked her to lobby Dalli. Through the offices of her co-worker Iosif Galea at the LGA, Kimberley met Silvio Zammit, a long-time Nationalist Party activist who had canvassed for Dalli.

Earlier this week, the Maltese member of OLAF's supervisory committee, Rita Schembri, tendered her resignation from the committee; as permanent secretary and head of the Prime Minister's internal audit and investigations department, she also led the OLAF liaison unit Afcos (anti-fraud coordination) which contributed to the OLAF investigation on Dalli. Schembri herself is embroiled in an ethics inquiry by the Auditor General after MaltaToday revealed that the permanent secretary was conducting private business from her government offices. She has since suspended herself from the post of IAID chief.