Maltese central bank governor and deputy prime minister face charges in snowballing corruption case – POLITICO

Allegations of corruption surrounding the so-called Vitals agreement featured prominently in the work of the Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, murdered in 2017. Caruana Galizia published in-depth investigations into privatization deals negotiated by the Muscat administration.

Charges are also pending against Muscat, who served as prime minister from 2013 to 2020, as first reported by the Times of Malta. Anticipating legal action against him, Muscat retorted on Facebook: “It is no longer just a political vendetta, but it has turned into a shame and an abomination.”

Scicluna was finance minister at the time of the Vitals deal, while Fearne – who was recently tipped by Prime Minister Robert Abela to be part of the next European Commission – had been health minister since 2016.

A Maltese court last year annulled the government’s deal with Vitals Group Healthcare (VGH) in a scathing ruling finding that VGH had failed to meet all its obligations, as had Dallas-based Steward Health Care, which purchased the concession in 2018. , which had continued to make payments to VGH shareholders after the closing of this transaction, filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States on Monday, after a series of missteps in the management of its network of 31 hospitals in its national market.

Scicluna declined to comment for this article. He had testified in a related court case in 2020 that he was unaware of the details of negotiations between then-Health Minister Konrad Mizzi and VGH.

Mizzi, along with Muscat’s former chief of staff Keith Schembri, are also expected to face charges as a result of the investigation, according to the indictment seen by POLITICO.