Swiss company which paid Muscat as a consultant had secret agreement to profit off hospitals deal
A secret deal was set up to see a Swiss company which went on to engage Joseph Muscat as a “consultant” receive 30% of Steward Health Care’s dividends from the hospitals concession which has since been cancelled by a court, accordin
A secret deal was set up to see a Swiss company which went on to engage Joseph Muscat as a “consultant” receive 30% of Steward Health Care’s dividends from the hospitals concession which has since been cancelled by a court, according to a report by the Times of Malta.
The newspaper reported that the secret agreement will have seen Swiss-based Accutor AG a share of Steward Health Care’s profits through dividends and earnings.
The agreement was signed in April 2019. Nine months later, Joseph Muscat – who was Prime Minister when the concession seeing three hospitals handed over to a private company was awarded – signed a consultancy agreement with the same Accutor AG.
The hospitals deal later became the subject of a National Audit Office investigation, which found serious shortcomings in its governance, a civil court case, which ended in the deal being annulled, and a magisterial inquiry which led to charges being filed against a myriad of individuals – including Muscat, his ex-Chief of Staff Keith Schembri, former minister Konrad Mizzi, former Health Minister Chris Fearne, and now-suspended Central Bank Governor Edward Scicluna.
Steward Health Care ran the concession after buying out the initial concessionaire Vitals Global Healthcare – the company awarded the concession in the first place, despite having zero experience in the health sector.
Many of the players however remained the same: the documents cited by Times of Malta show that it was Armin Ernst – who led Steward’s Malta branch but also served as the CEO of Vitals – who signed off on the secret profit-sharing deal with Accutor.
Emails which were obtained by OCCRP show that the profits were intended for Pakistani businessman Shaukat Ali - who is also facing charges in relation to the hospitals deal, as is the owner of Accutor, Wasay Bhatti.
The emails indicate that no money was actually paid: “substantial debts” meant that Steward never did receive any dividends from the hospitals deal before it was terminated in 2023 by Malta’s courts.
Steward however did pay over €7 million to Accutor between 2018 and 2020 for "political consultants", "jet expenses", "lobbying" and "payroll services."
Accutor signed Joseph Muscat on as a consultant some nine months after the profit-sharing agreement was signed between it and Steward. Muscat’s contract was worth €15,000 per month, and the former Prime Minister was paid €60,000 in four separate payments.
Investigators believe that the consultancy contract was a cover for Muscat to receive kickbacks related to the hospitals deal – a suggestion that Muscat has vehemently denied.
Shaukat Ali and Wasay Bhatti declined to comment to Times of Malta when contacted about the secret profit-sharing agreement, citing a court-imposed gag order, while the newspaper said that Muscat and Steward did not respond to a request for comment.
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