Clayton Bartolo's wife at centre of €50,000 kickback allegations

Former tourism minister Clayton Bartolo’s wife, Amanda Muscat, received tens of thousands of euros from a private firm suspected to be a kickback related to a Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) contract.

The Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU), Malta's anti-money laundering agency, flagged the transactions to the police, according to a report by the Times of Malta published on Tuesday.

The payments, estimated at around €50,000, were reportedly made over six months by a company linked to an MTA contractor. 

On Tuesday morning, Prime Minister Robert Abela announced that Bartolo had resigned from cabinet and the PL's parliamentary group following yet another scandal.

Bartolo, his wife and Gozo minister Clint Camilleri have been dominating the news cycle after a Standards Commissioner report which found that the ministers had abused their power when they awarded Muscat a number of government promotions within their ministries.

The FIAU investigation focused on Muscat’s work for a company associated with Italian cyclist Valerio Agnoli in 2023. In 2021, Agnoli was hired by the MTA to promote cycling tourism and formalised a €20,000 annual agreement in 2023. 

Amanda Muscat began working for an Agnoli-linked company in 2023, 18 months after leaving her unjustified ministry consultant role, and ended the assignment in December.

Investigators believe Muscat’s payments might be tied to an MTA-related kickback. 

A Tourism Ministry spokesperson had stated this work was unrelated to Agnoli’s MTA contract and that Muscat complied with tax obligations.