‘Lawful whistleblower’ Ram Tumuluri denies giving money to Joseph Muscat

Ram Tumuluri is denying that former prime minister Joseph Muscat had received payments from Vitals Global Healthcare, instead shifting blame to Steward Health Care.

In a statement on behalf of his lawyer, Tumuluri describes himself as “a lawful whistleblower who has bravely came forward to disclose illegal activity by current and/or former senior Maltese government officials and current and/or former officials with Steward Health Care”.

While he denies that VGH ever gave Muscat any money, Tumuluri insists that the payments being reported in the media are associated with Steward Health Care and took place after the hospitals concession was awarded to the company.

“Mr Tumuluri has no knowledge of these nor, consequently, whether such allegations against Steward Health care or Mr Muscat are true. In any event, they do not concern him or VGH.”

His statement comes after an investigation by the Times of Malta, The Shift News, and OCCRP revealed that police are probing Muscat’s bank accounts and income declarations in connection to corruption in the hospitals’ deal.

Muscat received consultancy payments from SpringX Media and Accutor Consulting, both registered at the same Swiss address.

However, Accutor Consulting used to be called VGH Europe. It was switched to Accutor Consulting in January 2018, shortly before Steward Health Care took over the concession to run three hospitals in Malta.

Read the letter below