John Dalli owned an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands which he never disclosed in his obligatory asset filings, an investigation by Times of Malta and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) can reveal. Proof of Dalli’s ownership of the shell company emerges from a new document trove known as the Pandora Papers, covering 11.9 million confidential records leaked from 14 different corporate service providers across the globe. ICIJ director Gerard Ryle explains the significance of the Pandora Papers. The former minister and European commissioner used nominee services provided by the Panama law firm Alcogal to hide his ownership of the BVI company Westmead Overseas Limited. This means that instead of opting to openly appear in any public records as Westmead’s owner, Dalli instead chose to pay Alcogal to disguise his ownership via a nominee company. He did, however, show up on Westmead's register of directors together with two nominees from Alcogal. Owning an offshore company is not in itself illegal, although with Dalli’s checkered history, the steps taken to conceal his ownership of Westmead and his failure to declare the company in...