Updated 1.50pm

• Ali and his wife charged with corruption 
• Switzerland-based lawyer Wasay Bhatti charged with bribery
• Cyclotron-linked businessman Giuseppe Musarella charged
• Ram Tumuluri has not yet been located, prosecutors say
• Accutor AG, Mount Everest FZ and other firms also charged with crimes

Pakistani businessman Shaukat Ali Chaudhry was on Wednesday charged with corruption, money laundering, and other crimes in connection with the Vitals deal to privatise three state hospitals.

Appearing in the Valletta law courts, Ali, 73 and with a residence at Tigné Point, pleaded not guilty to all charges before Magistrate Rachel Montebello. 

Describing himself as a freelance consultant, he told the magistrate: “I’m not guilty. My plea is not guilty."

His wife, 52-year-old Pakistani housewife Shaukat Aasia Parveen, was also arraigned on Wednesday and charged with the same offences. She also pleaded not guilty. 

Ali’s son, Asad Ali, also stands accused of crimes in relation to the now-annulled hospitals deal. He is being charged separately.

Prosecutors allege the family profited illegally from the deal, using Ali-controlled companies Mount Everest FZ LLC and Global Assets Holdings to do so. Ali appeared as a representative of those two companies and pleaded not guilty to criminal charges on their behalf.

Both were represented in court by lawyers Shazoo Ghaznavi and Jessica Formosa.

Ali was a key part of the deal and made several millions off the now-annulled hospitals deal. Ostensibly a consultant to Vitals, investigators believe he was actually the company’s secret majority owner. 

Documents unearthed by investigators showed his myriad links to the hospitals deal. His wife was a director of Vitals’ holding company, Bluestone Investments. His son, who is also facing criminal charges, made money by providing IT and other services to the hospitals. And Ali himself was made a Vitals consultant and given a €100,000-a-month contract. 

Prosecutors have now charged him and his wife Aasia with a litany of major crimes:  money laundering, trading in influence, misappropriation, promoting and participating in a criminal organization and corruption.

They also asked the court to order a freeze of Ali's assets of up to €30 million and Aasia Parveen's assets up to €20 million, and to forbid the two from discussing the case or its details in public. 

Ali's lawyers objected to the freezing order requests, arguing that a constitutional reference regarding such freezing orders should first be decided before any such orders were accepted.

Following deliberation, the magistrate imposed an asset freeze on both Shaukat Ali and his wife. She specified that the freezing order was a temporary one, giving the defendants hope that it might be lifted if a constitutional reference filed by other defendants in the case ended in their favour. 

The magistrate also allowed Ali and his wife to travel outside of Malta, provided they informed the court of their travel plans and paid a €30,000 guarantee.

Wasay Bhatti charged with bribery

As the couple were being arraigned before Magistrate Montebello, another figure linked to the Vitals deal and alleged corruption appeared in a separate courtroom, to face charges of his own. 

Wasay Attaoul Bhatti, an Indian-born lawyer based in Switzerland, was charged with money laundering, criminal conspiracy, bribery, misappropriation, fraud and other related crimes.

Bhatti stands accused both in his personal capacity and as a representative of Accutor AG and Spring Healthcare Services AG, two Swiss companies believed to have been used by the hospital concessionaires as part of a political slush fund.

"Not guilty", he told Magistrate Leonard Caruana before the question was put to him.

Prosecutors say Bhatti helped facilitate bribery payments to former prime minister Joseph Muscat, former minister Konrad Mizzi and former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri. 

They say he also aided Shaukat Ali and his suspected Vitals frontman, Sri Ram Tumuluri, to trade in influence. 

Tumuluri is also poised to face criminal charges, but prosecutors told a court on Wednesday that they have been unable to locate him to serve him with a court summons.

Prosecutors requested a €9 million freezing order on Bhatti's assets - a request which his lawyers Shazoo Ghaznavi, Jessica Formosa, Alex Scerri Herrera and Jeanine Depasquale objected to. 

Cyclotron-linked investor charged

A fourth person charged on Wednesday was Italian businessman Giuseppe Domizio Musarella, 59. 

Musarella, who pleaded not guilty to money laundering, fraud and making false declarations, is alleged to have helped Vitals defraud taxpayers through a project to acquire a Cyclotron - a medical device that manufactures cancer treatment medicines. 

Investigators say Musarella acquired the Cyclotron through a newly created company, Mtrace Ltd, and then rapidly sold Mtrace to Vitals as soon as the latter received taxpayer millions. 

Vitals would go on to sell the Cyclotron, which is still not operational years later, to Malta Enterprise, which helped fund the original Mtrace purchase through a loan. 

His defence lawyer Veronique Dalli argued that Musarella was a legitimate businessman who had been dragged into this affair. His company was among the first to transport COVID-19 vaccines into Malta. 

The lawyer said the company's business was to transport dangerous medicines.

Magistrate Leonard Caruana upheld a freezing order against Musarella up to a maximum of €62,500. He instructed financial institutions to grant the defendant access to any funds above that amount.

AG lawyers Francesco Refalo, Rebekah Spiteri and Shelby Aquilina together with Superintendent Hubert Cini and Inspector Wayne R Borg prosecuted Wednesday's court hearings.

A cancelled privatisation deal

The hospital privatisation deal was rescinded by a civil court last year after a judge concluded that Vitals, and later Steward Health Care, had not lived up to its contractual obligations. The court found that the deal was tainted by fraud. 

Separately, a magisterial investigation into criminal culpability linked to the deal was concluded earlier this year.

 

Investigators have filed criminal charges against dozens of people as a result of that probe, including Muscat, Mizzi, Schembri and former minister Chris Fearne, who is being charged separately with lesser crimes.

All those prosecuted are pleading not guilty.