One of the alleged ringleaders of a social benefits fraud has claimed that he was told he would not be prosecuted if he fired his lawyer Jason Azzopardi.
“I got a message from the OPM [Office of the Prime Minister]. They told me ‘get rid of your lawyer, Jason Azzopardi. We will get you a lawyer and you won’t be charged,’” Roger Agius said on Saturday.
Agius said he received that message verbally and that it was given to him on the OPM's behalf by someone "external", but implied he had a recording in which the person relaying the message could be heard making the offer.
Agius, who served as the official driver to junior minister Andy Ellul, is one of five people accused of having perpetuated a massive, years-long fraud that saw people being falsely classified as disabled to be granted monthly benefit payments.
He has claimed that the fraud involved top officials in Michael Falzon’s Social Policy ministry, including Falzon’s person of trust Mark Calleja, known as Il-Gulija.
He is being defended in court by Jason Azzopardi, a former PN MP and major antagonist of Robert Abela’s Labour government.
Speaking on Saturday while seated next to Agius, Azzopardi said his client’s experience with the OPM tallied with what he heard from another client of his, who is one of the people charged with having received fraudulent benefit payments.
“This person would never have been found guilty, because they had a severe illness and lacked criminal intent. But someone at the OPM told them that if they repaid the money they received and got rid of me as their lawyer, they would avoid prosecution,” Azzopardi said.
Azzopardi and Agius were guests on an RTK103 radio show hosted by academic Andrew Azzopardi.
Agius: 'I was a runner, Grixti was their whore'
In a 10-minute appearance on the show, Agius – who is pleading not guilty to criminal charges – described himself as a “runner” in the fraud.
He said he continued to relay applications to a top official in Michael Falzon’s Social Policy ministry, Mark Calleja il-Gulija, as recently as March 2023.
By then, police had been investigating the fraud for well over a year.
The racket saw beneficiaries being falsely diagnosed as severely disabled and given various falsified documents to present to a medical board, which classified them as eligible for monthly benefit payments.
Silvio Grixti, a family doctor and former Labour MP, is alleged to have played a major role in the scam. He is being charged alongside Agius and others.
Agius says the racket reached across government, with various ministries referring people to Grixti.
“Ministries would send people to him at all hours of the day, threatening him with business cards,” he said, saying Grixti ended up as the racket’s “whore”.
The real mastermind behind the racket has not yet been revealed, Agius said, adding that police seemed to not be interested in getting that information. Police, he said, had been instructed to only investigate people "from the doctor [Grixti] down."
Agius: Mark Calleja made money from racket
Falzon’s person of trust Calleja played a major role, he said.
“They would tell me what to do, what to sort out, and say they would take care of everything. They did it for votes, and for money,” he said.
When asked who made money off the deal, Agius said that it was people who organised the medical assessment boards. When pressed for names, he mentioned Calleja.
“They’d say ‘let’s not set the board meeting for today, because our doctors aren’t there today,” he claimed.
Minister Michael Falzon has denied any knowledge of the deal but stopped short of distancing himself from Calleja, his direct employee.
'Police leaked my information to Castille'
Agius has said that he sought – but was denied – whistleblower status in exchange for providing information.
On Saturday, he said he applied for that status when he realised that information he provided police during interrogations was being leaked to the government.
“They told the prime minister what I said at the FCID [Financial Crimes Investigation Department],” he said. “I have proof of that and will show it in court.”
He also offered another anecdote to illustrate his suspicions of police leaking information.
“In my second or third statement to the police, I mentioned a cabinet member. The next day, that member of cabinet knew that I name-dropped them,” Agius said.