The attorney general’s office is expected to withdraw money laundering charges against a company in connection with the Vitals hospitals concession which claimed it had not even been set up when it was alleged to have committed crimes.

Sources close to the criminal proceedings instituted against DF Corporate Advisory Ltd said the court was informed that the charges will be dropped during the first sitting taking place on Wednesday. 

The company was hit with a €20 million freezing order after it had criminal charges filed against it as part of a raft of prosecutions linked to the 30-year deal to privatise three State hospitals annulled by a civil court last year. 

In the original court filings, prosecutors from the attorney general’s office and the police accused DF Corporate Advisory of having committed those crimes “between 2013 and 2023”.

But, in a judicial protest filed in court, the financial services firm said it only started operating on January 1, 2024, having opened bank accounts on December 18, 2023, after having received the licence to act as a corporate service provider (CSP) on June 1 last year. 

The company was hit with a €20 million freezing order after it had criminal charges filed against it as part of a raft of prosecutions linked to the 30-year deal to privatise three State hospitals annulled by a civil court last year

It said the company was incorporated on August 18, 2021.

Through its lawyers, Ezekiel Psaila, Marion Camilleri and Franco Debono, the company said there was “absolutely no case to answer for”. It said the charges filed against it were “absurd” and “completely baseless” and were creating financial distress for the company. 

The company complained that when the €20 million freezing order comes into effect, it will be “completely paralysed” and unable to operate. 

The judicial protest was filed against the attorney general, the state advocate, the police commissioner, the justice and home affairs ministers and the court registrar. 

Sources said lawyers from the attorney general’s office filed a note in the acts of the proceedings informing Magistrate Leonard Caruana, who will preside over the case, of its intention to file fresh charges which will exclude DF Corporate Advisory Ltd from the list of defendants. 

The charges against the company are believed to have been filed erroneously. 

Several senior officials and companies, including former prime minister Joseph Muscat, are facing charges in connection with the hospitals’ debacle.