By Julian Bonnici and Daiva Repečkaitė.
- Joseph Portelli issued over €637,000 in payments to John Dalli, via their companies, between 2017 and 2022
- A 2017 lease contract, which officials believe to have been forged, references COVID-19, almost three years before the pandemic was even declared.
- Bank officials flagged irregularities, including continued payments after the lease ended.
- Almost 30 companies had the same registered address as the lease agreement, including one reportedly linked to a Ponzi scheme.
- Portelli denied “ever doing business” with John Dalli in a 2021 interview.
A backdated contract. Hundreds of thousands in unexplained payments. Banking officials believed transactions between former EU Commissioner John Dalli and developer Joseph Portelli were tied to a suspected financing agreement on Mercury Towers.
Bank records seen by Amphora Media and The Times of Malta show that Portelli’s Mercury Contracting Projects transferred at least €637,200 in annual payments to Dalli’s company, Tabor Consult, since 2017.
- 2017: €70,800
- 2018: €129,800
- 2019: €94,400
- 2020: €94,400
- 2021: €129,800
- 2022: €82,600
John Dalli refused to answer the specific questions sent regarding the contract and the discrepancies flagged by banking officials, saying it was “appalling” to ask him to provide documentation to counter the official report. He insisted that the report was an “inquisition” and told reporters, “you are ignorant of the business practices and the operations of professional offices”.
Joseph Portelli did not reply to questions sent.
Who is Joseph Portelli?
Raised in Canada, Joseph Portelli emerged as the poster boy for Malta’s development boom after Joseph Muscat swept to power in 2013, with his forays into sports club ownership, through Hamrun Spartans and Nadur Youngsters, bringing further attention.
He enjoys a close relationship with politicians and has boasted of his frequent meetings with them to “speed up the process” and “argue for [his] rights.
The Shift News had revealed that Prime Minister Robert Abela even attended a fundraising dinner in Gozo organised by Portelli and his associates to support the Labour Party’s electoral campaign.
Who is John Dalli?
A Maltese accountant-turned-politician, Dalli served in a long line of Nationalist government cabinets between 1987 and 2010 under Eddie Fenech Adami and Lawrence Gonzi. He was later appointed European Commissioner in 2010 and resigned in 2012.
Dalli was forced to resign as EU Commissioner amid claims of bribery and trading in influence with a Swedish company in return for seeking to influence EU legislation. An anti-fraud investigation recommendations were forwarded to the Maltese judiciary, and a court case is ongoing. Dalli denies the charges.
After leaving the Commission, he was appointed as an official consultant to then-Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, shortly after he came to power in 2013.
The transactions raised concerns among officials, notably as Dalli’s Tabor Consult has never submitted audited accounts. Dalli established the company, a consultancy firm, in 2014, two years after he resigned from the EU Commission over bribery charges that are still underway.
The latter remains true today, with the Malta Business Registry confirming to Amphora Media that it had issued administrative penalties to Tabour Consult for failing to do so.
2017 Agreement Included COVID-19 Reference Two Years Before Pandemic
To justify the payments from Portelli, Dalli provided officials with a lease agreement dated the 30th June 2017, which claimed that Portelli’s Mercury Contracting Projects rented his office at Portomaso for €10,000 per month. The company indeed used this address from its incorporation in 2016 until 2024.
Officials believed that the agreement was retroactively edited or even forged. The 2017 contract included an explicit reference to COVID-19 in its force majeure clause—a full two years before the pandemic began.
Marcel Bonnici, the CEO of Mercury Towers, confirmed with Amphora Media that there was no contract when the lease began, and the one provided to authorities was produced retroactively. However, he insisted that there was “nothing suspicious in the nature of the agreement”, despite the reference to COVID-19.
An analysis by Amphora Media and The Times of Malta found that almost 30 companies shared the same registered address, many of which were during the period of the agreement.
Bonnici confirmed that the address was used as the registered office of several companies, but stated that it was “completely normal.”
These include several companies of Dalli, his daughters, and Portelli, including Tabor Consult and Mercury Towers, and other companies not linked to the payments, which include Vitals Global Healthcare’s Shaukat Ali.
The inquiry into the Vitals Global Healthcare/Steward hospitals deal revealed that Dalli and Ali had long-standing business ties, with Asad Ali, Shaukat’s son, once serving as a shareholder in Interactive International Corporation Limited, later Corporate International Consultancy Limited, alongside Dalli’s daughters, Louisa and Claire, in 2009. Dalli’s company also introduced Shaukat’s wife to HSBC.
Experts in the inquiry also believe that Dalli introduced Ali to former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and his chief of staff, Keith Schembri.
Officials raised concerns over missing documentation to explain the transactions between Dalli and Portelli.
These include why payments continued for at least three years beyond the lease’s expiry, despite Dalli not providing an extension agreement; and why Portelli, a construction magnate with an extensive portfolio across Malta, would even need to rent the premises in the first place.
Meanwhile, documents show that Mercury Contracting Projects listed the Portomaso premises as its future official address in company documents almost nine months before the signing of the agreement.
Previous transaction reports had also flagged that Dalli was “lending funds to Mercury Towers” and charging an interest of more than the 8% allowed by law, and would not be subject to taxation. Authorities were informed. However, it appears the case did not progress further.
Questions about Mercury Towers’ finances, which have been raised on the back of several public bonds, are not new.
In 2024, developer Joseph Portelli floated a €20 million public bond to refinance part of the project’s debt with Bank of Valletta.
Company filings show liabilities reaching more than €190 million by 31 December 2023—more than twice the figure reported two years earlier. Assets rose in tandem, reaching €269 million, which is also approximately double the 2021 level.
Initially slated for completion in 2019, the development’s structural works were not finished until November 2023. Management then set a target for a full launch by the end of 2024, but that deadline has also been missed.
Conflicting Statements and Ongoing Probes: Portelli Said He Never Did Business With John Dalli
Despite the significant transactions, Portelli denied ever doing business with John Dalli in a September 2021 interview with the Times of Malta.
“I have never done business with John Dalli,” he said.
“Sixteen years ago, I had knocked on his door to tell him I wanted to develop projects in Libya. Shortly afterwards, he invited me to go with him on a trip to Libya to meet with people who would be interested in my projects. That’s how I know him.”
The data directly contradicts Portelli. At that point, at least €389,400 had been transferred between Portelli and Dalli’s companies.
There are further links between Portelli and Dalli. Notably, Claire Gauci Borda, Dalli’s daughter, serves as Chief Financial Officer at J Portelli Projects.
Gauci Borda faces separate legal difficulties, accused, along with her sister, of running a Ponzi scheme in a high-profile case that has also drawn intense media attention due to delays in prosecution.
Bank officials also raised concerns over the operations of Corporate Group Limited—another entity linked to Dalli and owned by his daughters, which is reportedly connected to the Ponzi scheme case.
The company transferred a €750,000 “loan” to Tabor Consult shortly before closing its bank account in mid-2018. This transaction heightened concerns among banking officials about possible money laundering or unreported financial arrangements.
Claire Gauci Borda and Louisa Dalli did not reply to the questions sent.
Malta’s investigative authorities were informed of the transaction. It appears no further action was taken. Both the Police and FIAU said they could not disclose or confirm information on such investigations.
BOV also said it was unable to comment publicly on client matters due to “data protection regulations”, but insisted it has “in place very strong due diligence and credit governance processes that meet regulatory requirements and expectations”.
Following publication, Mercury Towers Contracting Projects Ltd, owned by Joseph Portelli, categorically rejected “any insinuation of wrongdoing in relation to the commercial lease agreement our group of companies had with Tabor Consult”.
In the statement, Mercury admitted that the lease provided which referenced COVID-19 was produced retroactively, but said this was a “simple administrative oversight and does not, in any way, suggest intent to mislead or falsify documentation”.
“Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) are not evidence of wrongdoing. In fact, we have not been contacted by any authority with concerns about this agreement.”
It said that Portelli’s comments in 2021 referred to business partnerships, not administrative leasing arrangements.
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