A key player in Vitals Global Healthcare set up secret companies in Dubai for Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi, investigations have found.
The existence of these companies has never been publicly exposed.
Shaukat Ali, who together with his family is suspected to have siphoned off over €10 million from Vitals, set up the secret companies for Schembri and Mizzi in 2015, while they were still in government.
Investigators have raised suspicions that some of the money allegedly siphoned off from Vitals and channelled to Dubai and other locations was intended for the former OPM chief of staff and health minister.
No proof was found, however, to back this assertion, as investigators were unable to establish the onward flow of the funds in Dubai, which is notorious for its financial secrecy.
Ali was one of the Vitals shareholders who signed a secret memorandum with government, which acted as a precursor to the hospitals contract.
He started setting up the structures for Schembri and Mizzi in July 2015, just one month after the government officially signed off the running of the St Luke’s, Karin Grech and Gozo hospitals to Vitals. Documents indicate Ali initially sought to help the government officials open bank accounts for their then-secret Panama companies.
Sources said Ali sent Schembri a list of requirements needed to set up a bank account for his Panama company.
At the time, Schembri’s ownership of the Panama company was not public knowledge, leading investigators to note how the government official apparently trusted Ali with “critical and private information,” which occurred at the time the hospitals contract was awarded.
Investigators said the deep trust that appeared to exist between Ali and Schembri was the nexus for the whole hospitals concession.
In August 2015, Dubai companies by the names of Akash and Intercare were incorporated for the government officials, according to investigators.
Although Schembri’s and Mizzi’s ownership of the Panama companies was outed by journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in February 2016, their link to companies in Dubai was never publicly declared.
The Dubai companies were dissolved in March 2016 upon the request of Shaukat Ali, investigators found out.
Along with former prime minister Joseph Muscat, Schembri and Mizzi are due to face charges relating to the hospital deal of money laundering, corruption, bribery and setting up a criminal association.
If found guilty, they could face up to 18 years in prison.
When contacted, Schembri, Mizzi and Ali all denied wrongdoing.