Who are the men behind the disability racket scandal?

This week, five men are expected to be charged with organising and forming part of a criminal organisation, defrauding the Department of Social Security, and forging official documents. 

Former Labour MP Silvio Grixti was one of the men implicated in the extensive scheme spanning several years, involving the fraudulent acquisition of monthly disability benefits by hundreds of people who were not legitimately entitled to them.  

But who are the other men set to be charged over the disability rackets scandal? It turns out that some of them have a coloured criminal record, and one bought shares in a company from former footballer Jeffrey Chetcuti. 

A former Labour MP and Tarxien man with criminal convictions 

The five men being charged over the scandal are Silvio Grixti, Roger Agius, Emanuel Spagnol, Dustin Caruana and Luke Saliba. 

Silvio Grixti needs no introduction. He is a popular doctor and former Labour MP who resigned from parliament in 2021 after news emerged that he was interrogated by police in relation to fraudulent medical documents.  

When he resigned from parliament, he told his Facebook followers that he did “not want to occupy a parliamentary seat at a time when I will not be focused 100% on representing my constituents and patients.” 

Dustin Caruana, from Tarxien, was only 20 years old in 2008 when he admitted to charges of supplying or procuring heroin and being in possession of heroin without an appropriate licence. 

The court decided that Caruana be sentenced to 10 months in prison and pay a fine of €2,300. 

Six years later, Caruana was convicted of knowingly buying stolen clothes and two cars, a Mitsubishi Pajero and a Daihatsu Sirion. He again admitted to the charges and was given a two-year prison sentence suspended for four years. 

In 2016, he was charged with operating illegal gaming equipment, particularly a Megatouch Maxx and Miss Bowling Turbo, but was acquitted as the prosecution could not prove the crime beyond reasonable doubt. 

Insurance fraud and business from Jeffrey Chetcuti 

Emanuel Spagnol, 69 from Żejtun, was in 2003 convicted of insurance fraud, having falsely reported a crime to the police and taking a false oath. 

According to the judgment, Spagnol told police that his Żejtun home had been robbed on 20 February 1996, with someone breaching the property by smashing the glass part of his front door. However, the police inspector on the scene noticed that the front door wasn’t locked. 

While the court said that those factors per se are not enough to find Spagnol guilty in the criminal camp, it found comfort in Spagnol’s police statement, and put the onus on him to prove that the robbery did in fact happen. 

Spagnol was handed a two-year prison sentence suspended for four years. The decision was appealed but Spagnol ended up being served with a general interdiction and an interdiction from serving as a witness and as a court expert.  

In a separate case, Spagnol was charged with misappropriation, making false declarations, and fraud, but was absolved after the court could not find enough evidence to even indict him. 

Spagnol is also a shareholder in BGL Malta Ltd, which he owns together with Kurt Carabott and Simon Gaetan Dominic Spiteri. The company shares were transferred to the three men in 2018 by former footballer Jeffrey Chetcuti, who was arrested in 2020 and charged with money laundering and fuel smuggling.  

Andy Ellul’s personal driver 

Roger Agius, the fourth man being charged, is the former driver and canvasser for junior minister Andy Ellul. He was initially a canvasser and driver for Grixti but was roped into Ellul’s campaign for the 2022 general election. By then Grixti had already ended his parliamentary career. 

Earlier in March, Agius filed a judicial protest against a range of entities, including the Prime Minister and State Advocate, claiming that the government’s Whistleblower Office had twice ignored his offer to provide information exposing this scheme, the way it operates, as well as the people behind it.  

The judicial protest stated that Agius had first proffered information that would “expose corrupt and criminal acts within the public administration” in November, writing again a month later, having been ignored on both occasions. 

The last person being charged is Luke Saliba, 33 from Msida. There is little public information on him, but his Facebook profile suggests that he operates a pastizzeria in Gwardamanga.