Firm behind Chris Fearne smear campaign was invited to 2015 CHOGM in Malta - Cassola
Independent candidate Arnold Cassola publishes agenda document from 2015 CHOGM event
The same intelligence firm that was tasked with a smear campaign against former deputy prime minister Chris Fearne had been invited to speak at the Commonwealth Head of Governments Meeting (CHOGM) when it was hosted in Malta in 2015.
CT Group’s CEO was invited to speak at the Commonwealth Business Forum in Malta as part of the country’s CHOGM obligations.
But in 2022, the same company was tasked by Steward Healthcare with administering a smear campaign against the country’s deputy prime minister.
Independent candidate Arnold Cassola pointed this out in a statement on Wednesday. Referring to an agenda document from the business event, Cassola noted that Joseph Muscat’s government invited CEO Sir Lynton Crosby to speak at the event.
“Shocking! Yet another figure championed by Muscat turns out to be most probably delinquent,” he said. “For being such a sharp politician Muscat sure seems to be a poor judge of character. Or perhaps he was spot on and delinquents is what he intended to attract.”
At the time, the Commonwealth Business Forum was being chaired by Adrian Hillman, who is now being charged with money laundering related to the hospitals privatisation deal with Vitals Global Healthcare, and later Steward Healthcare.
Earlier this week, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) published a series of documents, first shared with the Times of Malta and the Boston Globe, detailing plans by Steward Healthcare to embark on a smear campaign against deputy prime minister Chris Fearne and other government players.
Steward targeted Fearne after disputes over whether Steward was carrying out all the medical services it had been contracted to deliver by the Maltese government.
The saga goes all the way to 2015, when the government granted a concession for the operation of three hospitals to Vitals Global Healthcare. The concession had been negotiated by Konrad Mizzi, who was health minister at the time.
Less than two years after being granted the concession, Vitals sold it to Steward Healthcare together with €55 million in debts accrued by VGH, for the nominal price of €1.
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