John Dalli’s daughters to face money laundering, fraud charges

The two daughters of former EU Commissioner and former Nationalist Finance Minister John Dalli are expected to be arraigned in court on charges related to money laundering.

Claire Gauci Borda, nee Dalli, 41, of Mqabba and her 36-year-old sister, Louisa Dalli, resident in Kercem, Gozo, will be charged with having – personally or, in their capacity as officers or representatives of Corporate Group Limited, Corporate International Limited, Tyre Limited and/or Little Red Wagons Limited – laundered money through the conversion or transfer of properties which they knew had been purchased using funds generated through criminal activity.

Four foreigners - Elouise Marie Corbin Klein, who is reported to have at least seven aliases, including Mary Swan; and Charles Ray Jackson, Elizabeth Jean Jackson and Robert Mitchell McIvor - will also be arraigned with them.

All six will be charged with money laundering, misappropriation of funds, fraud, making a false declaration to a public authority and the falsification and use of documents.

Gauci Borda and Dalli will also be charged with having attempted to obscure or misrepresent movement of rights and other details with regards to property which they knew or suspected to have been purchased through illicit funds.

Dalli’s eldest daughter alone will be charged with breaching the money laundering and financing of terrorism act and failure to carry out her duties as an accountant and auditor.

Elouise Marie Corbin Klein and Charles Ray Jackson will be separately charged with falsification of passports and being in possession of falsified identification documents.

The charge sheet seen by MaltaToday was filed in court earlier this week.

Two of the women’s companies – Tyre Ltd and Corporate Group – are alleged to have swindled a group of elderly American investors out of their life-savings. The two companies are registered at John Dalli’s Portomaso address and the two women are listed as the directors and shareholders of the latter company while Louisa Dalli was also director and accountant for the former.

The eight elderly American investors had wired a total of US$600,000 to a Maltese bank account held by Corporate Group.

It is understood that Gauci Borda was interrogated and placed on police bail in 2015 and the transcripts of the interrogation were sent straight to the FBI, which is investigating the alleged misappropriation in tandem with the Maltese police.

The Maltese police had also seized computers and files from a number of people involved in the alleged scam.