Jon Mallia: I Spoke To The Man Who Brought Down Dalli For 3 Hours Straight And It Was Mind-Blowing
In 2012 EU Commission President Manuel Barroso ordered John Dalli to pack up and vacate his Brussels office immediately and for good.
Dalli’s fall was very public, very quick and very humiliating. International journalists clamoured to the presser the following morning like vultures on carrion. This would be Dalli’s last bow on the political stage.
What precipitated Dalli’s demise was an OLAF report concluding the disgraced EU Commissioner had most probably solicited a €60 million bribe to overturn a European-wide ban on smokeless tobacco.
The signature officiating that assessment belonged to former anti-mafia prosecutor Giovanni Kessler, the man I filmed a three-hour conversation with a few days ago.
In 2011 Giovanni ascended to the helm of OLAF – the agency tasked with investigating anyone suspected of defrauding European institutions, amongst other things.
The man’s penchant for justice, his tempered intuitions and rigour invariably resulted in Giovanni making a few enemies, Marine Le Pen being his most famous nemesis to date. Although I suspect Dalli hates Giovanni with a passion that is near impossible to top.
In fact it was Dalli’s undying enmity for Giovanni that transformed the latter into an object of my intrigue.
So when I read that Giovanni was set to give testimony in the Malta Police’s case against Dalli, I assigned the case to my best (and only) producer Julian. Within the week he’d locked it all in. Giovanni would appear in court on the morning of the 2nd, then he’d sit with me for a Podcast later that afternoon.
I’ll be honest. Up until Giovanni’s eCabs ride rolled up in Mrieħel with him in the back, I wasn’t entirely sure he’d show up.
Oh but show up he did.
And boom, waiver signed.
Boom, cameras roll.
Boom, three hours of meticulous storytelling starring an audacious and often reckless Maltese trio as they supposedly (and at times comically) attempt to plunder their way through Europe.
I asked Giovanni about his first encounter with Dalli. We go into the time Silvio stormed out of his first interview with OLAF, cussing as he went. We talk about John Rizzo and his successors Peter Paul Zammit and later Angelo Gafa’. We asked why it took 10 years for Dalli to be charged and what bearing Silvio Zammit’s death has on the prosecution.
Former EU Commissioner John Dalli
Then there was that time Dalli shot off to the Bahamas in a mad haste, the day after Zammit’s interrogation with OLAF.
This is a crazy, wild story that had me welded to my seat with an endless stream of questions pouring through my mouth. The more I heard, the more curious I grew. By the time we wrapped up, my body and mind were exhausted but very very satisfied.
This is certainly one of my prouder moments as a Podcaster and it’s all available right now on patreon.com/jonmallia. Needless to say, subscribing to our Patreon means supporting my team and I in delivering more quality content of this kind.
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