University suspends Sib partnership over Maugeri scandal press reports

The University of Malta has declared it entered into research agreements with the Maltese company Sib Laboratories - which is embroiled in an investigation related to Italy's 'Maugeri scandal' - "in good faith".

Reacting to media reports on Sib Laboratories, which attracted attention over suspicions of a €15 million bank transfer that could have been laundered by the Maugeri Foundation in Italy through the Maltese firm, the University of Malta said that nothing irregular had been revealed when it conducted its own enquiries into the partnership.

"The University only learned of potential problems through the press and has since suspended its agreements with the two entities pending further investigations by the competent authorities."

Sib, the Maltese biomedical firm, is being investigated over connections with a multi-million money laundering scandal that has rocked Italian politics. Investigating magistrates are looking into a €56 million money-laundering inquiry, of which €15 million were allegedly funnelled to Sib Laboratories Ltd, the Maltese research company specialising in developing medical technologies.

The financial set-up is not straightforward: Sib Limited and its subsidiary Sib Laboratories were originally set up by Peralta Custodian in 2008, with its directors being Milan accountant Gianfranco Parricchi, and one of Peralta's lawyers, James Scerri Worley. When Scerri Worley left Peralta to set up his own legal firm, he took the management of Sib Laboratories with him. So the commercial arm of the company today is managed by Scerri Worley, Mario Barthet and Parricchi, but the holding company is still in the name of Peralta Custodian, and its new company secretary is David Gonzi - the prime minister's son - who said he has no knowledge of the commercial management of the company.

Milan magistrates believe the Maugeri foundation's consultants laundered its cash through such operations as the San Raffaele hospital of Milan and also Sib Laboratories.

Maugeri consultants like entrepreneur Piero Daccò then used his firms in Austria, Luxembourg and Malta - ostensibly Sib Laboratories - to fund "inexistent" projects such as studies on life on Mars and developing medical patents in Russia, and then funnelling the money back to his offshore accounts.

Since 2010 the University of Malta had entered into collaboration agreements with Sib Laboratories Ltd and the Fondazione Salvatore Maugeri to support collaborative research in the area of biomedical engineering. Through these agreements the parties established two awards aimed at encouraging research in this field: the Premio Salvatore Maugeri - an annual prize of €500 awarded to the best final year student project in Biomedical Engineering; and the Salvatore Maugeri Student Research Award - a €9,500 annual fund to provide support to final year student projects in this area.

The 2011 Research Award was allocated to fund five final-year student projects which included studies into the manner of walking of Scoliosis patients, the effect of antibiotics on diabetic patients with peripheral arterial disease; a design for a brain computer interface for patients with specific physical impairments; the design of a device to allow patients with neuro-muscular disorders to read books; and a study to create a database of recorded muscular activity during walking.