Charges linked to the hospitals deal
A second group of indictees also face charges in relation to the hospitals deal. While these people are not alleged to have taken bribes or traded in influence, they still face serious criminal charges.
Chris Fearne (23): Deputy prime minister and former health minister
Fearne was Muscat’s number two and retained that position under Robert Abela. Of all the people who will be charged, he holds the highest public office.
Fearne was also the health minister overseeing the deal until it was annulled last year. He repeatedly claimed he was kept in the dark throughout the negotiations with Steward and had only learned of the concession being transferred to Steward from media reports.
He is to face charges of fraud, misappropriation and fraudulent gain. Fearne said yesterday that he has yet to be notified of charges against him.
Edward Scicluna (22): Central Bank governor and former finance minister
Scicluna was the finance minister when the deal was negotiated and concluded and served that post throughout most of the concession period.
Testifying in court in 2020, however, he said he had very little oversight on what was going on. He said that he and his ministry were peripheral to the hospital privatisation project as it was being put together.
It remains unclear, therefore, what wrongdoing the inquiry found on his part because it has been kept under wraps. But he is also to face charges of fraud, misappropriation and fraudulent gain.
Ronald Mizzi (8): Konrad Mizzi’s former permanent secretary
He was the top civil servant under Mizzi at the time when the deal was conceived, negotiated and awarded to
Vitals. He had Mizzi’s trust, as he followed him to the tourism ministry when the minister was reassigned to that portfolio.
Mizzi is still a permanent secretary to this day, only now he serves in Silvio Schembri’s economy ministry.
He will be charged with fraud amounting to over €5,000, having made fraudulent gains and misappropriation. He will also be charged with having committed crimes he was duty bound to prevent.
Alfred Camilleri (15): Former finance ministry permanent secretary
Camilleri was the finance ministry’s permanent secretary when the deal was negotiated and awarded and throughout most of the concession period.
He is widely known in political circles as one of the most loyal and respected civil servants in modern history and served as the finance ministry’s permanent secretary for 16 years, from 2006 till June 2022.
Again, the specifics of his alleged wrongdoing remain unknown as long as the inquiry remains under wraps but he, too, will face charges as serious as the other civil servants – meaning fraud, having made fraudulent gains, misappropriation and having committed crimes he was duty bound to prevent.
Joseph Rapa (13): Former health ministry permanent secretary
Rapa led Fearne’s health ministry as its top civil servant between March 2013 and May 2022, spanning the period of negotiations with Vitals and Steward and throughout the concession period.
His charges are identical to the other permanent secretaries – Camilleri and Ronald Mizzi – meaning he is charged with fraud, having made fraudulent gains and misappropriation.
He will also be charged with having committed crimes he was duty bound to prevent.
Kenneth Deguara (18): Financial controller
Deguara is the chief financial officer of DF Advocates – a law firm that served as legal advisers to Vitals as well its medical supplier Technoline.
Both companies – DF Advocates and Technoline – are also being charged in court. And so is the sister company of DF Advocates – DF Corporate Advisory.
He will answer to charges of document fraud, including documents related to VAT, as well as money laundering.
Kevin Deguara (9): Lawyer
Deguara is a lawyer and the founding partner of DF Advocates, the law firm that provided legal counsel to Vitals and Technoline.
The law firm was raided by the police in connection with the Vitals investigation in September 2021.
Several of the firm’s lawyers, including founding partner Deguara, are being charged not only as representatives of their firm but also personally.
Deguara will also face money laundering charges and of having actively participated in a criminal activity and criminal association. Deguara’s law firm, DF Advocates, and its sister firm, DF Corporate Advisory Limited are also cited as defendants in the case.
Jean Carl Farrugia (11): Lawyer
Farrugia is also a lawyer and a founding partner of DF Advocates.
Like his business partner, Kevin Deguara, Farrugia will be charged with money laundering, having actively participated in a criminal activity and criminal association.
Deborah Anne Chappell (21): Lawyer
Chappell served as Vitals’ in-house legal counsel and is among those who will face the most charges.
Like the Deguaras and Jean Carl Farrugia, she stands accused of money laundering, and, like Fearne, Scicluna and the three permanent secretaries, she will face charges of misappropriation.
She will also need to answer to charges of document fraud and of having actively participated in a criminal activity and criminal association. Chappell is also the subject of the single-largest freezing order filed. Up to €42 million in her assets have been frozen.
Bradley Gatt (not pictured): Lawyer
Gatt is a corporate lawyer who worked with DF Advocates, the legal firm engaged by Vitals when the company came to Malta. He has since moved on to another legal practice.
Little is known about Gatt and his direct involvement in the hospitals deal but he appears to be a peripheral part of the alleged criminal conspiracy. Unlike his former colleagues, Gatt faces just one criminal charge – that of fraud.
Aron Mifsud Bonnici (7): Lawyer
A lawyer with close ties to Mizzi, Mifsud Bonnici served as board secretary of multiple entities under Mizzi’s portfolio during his time in office.
Apart from representing Mizzi as his personal lawyer, Mifsud Bonnici also had three key posts linked to the Vitals deal: he was board secretary to the evaluations committee that recommended the company for the tender, he sat on the negotiation committee that negotiated the concession and also formed part of the steering committee that oversaw the process.
Earlier this year, Times of Malta reported that he was under investigation in connection with €1.4m worth of suspicious transactions. He says they were all above board.
Mifsud Bonnici faces charges of fraud and forming part of a criminal association.
James Camenzuli (16): Evaluation committee chair
An engineer by profession, he was chairman of the evaluation committee responsible for choosing Vitals as the best company to run three public hospitals.
Camenzuli had presented the evaluation report which former minister Mizzi had allegedly used to decide on the hospitals privatisation deal in one of the hearings for Adrian Delia’s case.
The report was never published but the landmark judgment delivered last year concluded the committee had failed to carry out basic due diligence on Vitals.
He is to be charged with fraud amounting to over €5,000 and having made fraudulent gains.
Manuel Castagna (24): Evaluation committee member
Castagna was on the evaluation committee which decided Vitals was the government’s best choice. But he was also a Nexia BT official.
Nexia BT is the same firm ex-government officials Mizzi and Schembri used to set up suspected money-laundering structures in Panama.
Castagna has himself since been charged with money laundering, in a case linked to Schembri.
Two of his former bosses, Tonna and Cini, are alleged to have helped Muscat, Schembri and Mizzi commit crimes in the hospitals deal.
Castagna faces charges of having actively participated in a criminal activity and criminal association.
Robert Borg (14): Evaluation committee member
An accountant by profession, he completed the committee trio. He has also acted as the financial controller of the GWU and has served on many government entities.
He owned a company called B.E.D Limited, suspected to have been used to channel money from businessman Yorgen Fenech to the Labour Party.
Like Castagna, Borg also claimed to have been unaware of the MoU with Vitals.
Borg is to be charged with fraud amounting to over €5,000 and having made fraudulent gains.