Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1432205
4 NEWS maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 24 NOVEMBER 2021 NEWS NOTICE The public is informed that the Electoral Office will be relocating its offices from Evans Building Valletta to the Electoral Office premises in Naxxar during the period between the 25th November and the 5th December 2021, both days included. During this period there may be disruptions in the services offered by the Electoral Office, both those offered over the telephone as well as those offered via electronic channels. The Electoral Office is doing its utmost to limit these disruptions as much as possible. Although the offices of the Address Management Unit in Marsa and the Electoral Office in Gozo will not be moving, the service they offer may also be affected as a result of the relocation of the Electoral Office in Valletta. The offices will resume normal operations with effect from Monday, 6th December 2021. Whilst thanking the public for its cooperation, the Electoral Office would like to apologise for any inconvenience that may arise as a result of this relocation. www.electoral.gov.mt INFLATION continued rearing its head in October with the annual rate standing at 2.31% when meas- ured by the retail price index, figures out today show. A month earlier, the annual inflation rate stood at 2.25%, the National Statistics Office said. Inflation has been on an upward trajectory since February. In October, the largest upward impact on annual inflation was measured in the food index, an increase of 0.73 percentage points. The annual food index rate now stands at 3.4%. The NSO said that the 12-month moving average rate for October stood at 1.12%. The 12-month av- erage is used to smooth out any seasonal disparities. The 12-month average has also been rising since April. Inflation continued upward trend in October Retail price index shows that inf lation has been rising since February MATTHEW AGIUS A lawyer has flagged missing doc- uments which should have been attached to a report by the Eu- ropean Anti-Fraud Office OLAF regarding former EU commis- sioner John Dalli, exhibited in a fraud and money laundering case against his daughters. The compilation of evidence against sisters Louisa Dalli and Claire Gauci Borda continued be- fore magistrate Caroline Farrugia Frendo today. They are accused of running a $600,000 Ponzi scheme which defrauded several American pensioners of their life savings. Previous sittings heard how funds from the scheme were wired to a company registered at John Dalli's Portomaso address. The case has been ongoing since 2018, originally against the Dalli siblings along with Eloise Corbin Klein, Charles Ray Jackson, Eliz- abeth Jean Jackson and Robert Mitchell McIvor, who were all charged with fraud, misappropri- ation, forgery and making false declarations to a public authority. As the case dragged on, beset by procedural difficulties and delays, four of the accused passed away, the last of whom, Corbin Klein, died earlier this year. Prosecuting police inspector Hubert Cini took over the case after former lead investigator In- spector Yvonne Farrugia became Malta's European Prosecutor at the European Public Prosecu- tor's Office. In September this year, Cini presented a copy of the OLAF report as ordered by the court in a previous decree. The court had seen evidence re- vealing that officers from OLAF had called for action to be taken against Dalli's daughters, leading to the court requesting the exhi- bition of the OLAF report. In the meantime, the prosecu- tion exhibited the report, which however, had a large number of references to documents annexed to the report. Lawyer Stefano Fil- letti dictated a note to the court. "To date, these annexes have not been given to the defence. At this stage, the defence would like a clarification about the following points: When the OLAF report was sent to the AG, did it have the annexes attached? If, when the acts were sent by the AG to the police, were the annexes at- tached? If they were not received by the police, or if they were, and cannot be found today, what happened to them?" Filletti ar- gued that even if the documents had disappeared, the police could make a request to OLAF to send another copy of the annexes so that they can be exhibited in these proceedings. Cini promised to go through all the case documentation again and request guidance from the AG. The case continues in February. Lawyers Stefano Filletti and Ste- phen Tonna Lowell are defence counsel to the Dalli sisters. OLAF report presented with missing documents in Dalli sisters' money laundering case John Dalli's two daughters are accused of running a $600,000 Ponzi scheme which defrauded several American pensioners of their life savings