Allegations of corruption around the so-called Vitals deal figured prominently in the work of the Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was assassinated in 2017. Caruana Galizia published extensive investigations into privatization deals brokered by the Muscat administration.
Charges are also pending against Muscat, who was prime minister from 2013 to 2020, as first reported by the Times of Malta. Anticipating legal action against him, Muscat retorted on Facebook: “This is no longer just a political vendetta, but has transformed itself into a disgrace and abomination.”
Scicluna was finance minister at the time of the Vitals deal, while Fearne — who was recently tipped by Prime Minister Robert Abela to form part of the next European Commission — was health minister from 2016.
A Maltese court struck down the agreement between the government and Vitals Group Healthcare (VGH) last year in a scathing ruling that found VGH had failed in all its obligations, along with Dallas-based Steward Health Care, which bought the concession in 2018. Steward, which had continued to make payments to VGH’s shareholders after the closure of that deal, filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. on Monday, after a series of missteps managing its network of 31 hospitals in its home market.
Scicluna declined to comment for this article. He had testified in a related court case in 2020 that he had not known about 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 inquiry, according to the charge sheet seen by POLITICO.