Muscat consultancies netted him €450,000 after 2020

Former prime minister Joseph Muscat, now charged with money laundering in the magisterial inquiry concerning the privatisation of state hospitals to Vitals Global Healthcare and Steward, reaped over €450,000 in consultancies from private companies between 2020 and 2021.

Muscat, who turned to management consultancy after resigning in disgrace in 2019 following the arrest of Yorgen Fenech, the alleged mastermind in the Caruana Galizia assassination, was paid €453,728 from Maltese construction developers as well as international companies and other payroll firms connected to Vitals and Steward’s key players.

Investigators who analysed Muscat’s bank accounts found payments made to the former prime minister starting just months after he stepped down his role as PM and party leader, in March 2020.

These comprised two payments of €15,000 each from Accutor Consulting (€30,000); six payments of €10,000 each from Global Ports Holding plc, the world’s largest cruise port operator which counts Valletta Cruise Terminal amongst its subsidiaries (€60,000); seven payments of €10,000 each from Kohli Ventures (€70,000);

17 payments of €11,800 each from Organicum Limited (€200,600), an exotic bird company owned by gaming tycoon Johann Schembri, who runs the Dragonara Casino; two payments of €15,000 each from Spring Xmedia AG, like Accutor run by Wasay Bhatti from Switzerland (€30,000);

€10,000 from Insignia Global Solutions, the luxury credit card company with whom former economy minister Chris Cardona was employed after his resignation in 2019; €11,800 from James Caterers, €11,328 from developer Michael Stivala’s ST Hotels, and €30,000 from Katari Holdings, a property company owned by Paul Attard, one of the three shareholders of GAP Holdings, the developers of Fort Cambridge in Tigné.

Accutor and SpringX Media

Investigators have so far focused on Muscat’s payments from Accutor Consulting AG and Spring Xmedia, which was formerly called VGH Europe AG and was formed in April 2017 by Ram Tumuluri and Shaukat Ali – the latter is believed to be the chief instigator of the hospitals’ privatisation plan.

When Muscat’s home was raided by police investigators in January 2022, the former Labour leader gave officers copies of the agreement he signed with Spring Xmedia.

According to the agreement, Muscat was appointed as a senior advisor to the board of directors on a three-year contract at the rate of €15,000 per month, for services delivered in Switzerland, the UAE, and the UK.

Investigators claim Muscat has not provided any documents to prove why Accutor was paying him for the Spring X consultancy – he provided one printed page, titled ‘Negotiations with the National Database and Registration Authority Pakistan’, and powerpoint presentations on other subjects; no time-sheets, reports, tickets or expenses were presented to support the consulting agreement.

Accutor whistleblower

Muscat has claimed the evidence against him is based on what “an Indian” source told the magisterial inquiry, possibly the former Accutor director Kamal Sharma.

Sharma told the inquiry that Muscat was trying to get a football club in Malta as well as assisting the planning process for a stadium and a hotel. The potential client was British national Benjamin Leigh Hunt, a prospective buyer of Crystal Palace FC.

Leigh Hunt’s business partner revealed the connection to Sharma’s co-director at Accutor, Tyrone Greenshields. Kamal claimed that Accutor director Wasay Bhatti was issuing payments to Leigh Hunt’s company White Tiger, to finance the possible deal.

The upshot of the deal was to import footballers from Latin America, by facilitating visa arrangements into Malta, before reselling them over into Europe.

Sharma claimed the payments from Accutor to Muscat started in early 2020.

Investigators also found transactions of €1.1 million paid from Steward Healthcare to Accutor between September 2019 and May 2020, suspecting that a consulting agreement can be uswd to shield these transfers.