Vitals investors told to disclose their UBOs or face being struck off register

Two companies at the heart of the secretive ownership of the Vitals Global Healthcare consortium have failed to submit their ultimate beneficial ownership to the Malta Business Registry.

The companies, Gozo International Medicare and Gozo Global Healthcare, were informed in early December that they had failed to comply with disclosure rules saying who the beneficial owners of the company are.

The MBR said the companies have until 1 January 2021 to submit the information, or face being dissolved and its name struck off the register within three months of the decision.

Should that happen, the assets of the company will devolve upon the Maltese government once the company’s name is struck off.

Declarations of beneficial ownership are part of anti-money laundering rules introduced in 2018 for the Malta financial regulator to have access to the identities of companies’ ultimate beneficial owners.

The two companies are subsidaries of the company Crossrange Holidings, which is in turn owned by Bluestone Investments Malta (70%), and Pivot Holdings (30%).

Pivot Holdings was owned by Mohammad Shoaib Walajahi and Chaudhry Shaukat Ali, widely cited as the promoters of the hospital privatisation project.

Bluestone, whose director was asset manager Mark Pawley, was in turn owned by Bluestone Special Situation 4, whose ownership included Ambrish Gupta, Portpool Investments – which belonged to Ram Tumuluri – and AGMC Incorporated, whose director was Dr Ashok Rattehalli.

But the ownership structure of  Vitals Global Healthcare remained a closely guarded secret for years, before a National Audit Office report confirmed the structure of the investors’ companies.

Vitals was awarded a 30-year concession to run three state hospitals – the former St Luke’s hospital, the Karin Grech hospital, and the Gozo General hospital. But the deal was vitiated by a dubious public competition, and by Vitals’ inability to secure bank financing to advance its project.

The project has since been taken over by American healthcare company Steward, which is itself in talks with the Maltese government to secure new guarantees on the way the hospitals will be financed.

Steward Healthcare is itself facing a $5 million claim in a London court from one of the original American investors who loaned Vitals millions in their initial bid to obtain the controversial hospitals privatisation in Malta.

Medical professional Ambrish Gupta, whose Medical Associates of Northern Virginia (MANV) was an early investor in the Vitals project, loaned the money to Bluestone Investments in January 2015.

A dispute arose in September 2016 over Gupta’s and MANV’s share in the Vitals project. A settlement was soon reached in December 2016 to pay MANV $10 million – $5 million was settled straight away, but another $5 million, at 8% interest, had to be paid up by February 2017.

The second tranche was never paid, and Vitals eventually sold off its concession to Steward Healthcare International in December 2017, and the dispute dragged on into 2019.

Gupta is chasing his money in a London court, asking it for a summary judgement to uphold the settlement deal.