Former Steward Healthcare CEO Ralph de la Torre is expected to question whether proceedings he is facing before the United States Senate impinge on criminal charges he is to face before the Maltese courts.
De la Torre was due to face criminal charges in a local court this week over his alleged involvement in the fraudulent hospitals privatization deal.
That contract, now annulled by the courts, was taken over by his company Steward Healthcare after the original concessionaire, Vitals Global Healthcare, moved out of the picture.
Steward has since filed for bankruptcy in the US and de la Torre also faces the prospect of criminal charges after he failed to show up for questioning by a US Senate committee looking into Steward and its collapse.
De la Torre was not present in the Valletta court on the day that his case appeared on the list posted outside Magistrate Leonard Caruana’s courtroom.
But lawyers Jose’ Herrera and Matthew Xuereb told the court that they were likely to be de la Torre’s legal representatives when he was eventually served notice of criminal charges.
To date, he has not yet been formally notified, they said, which was why he was not present in Malta.
The lawyers said they did not want to spring any surprises on the court and were therefore informing it that once proceedings against de la Torre begin, they would be seeking letters rogatory to obtain information about parallel proceedings taking place against de la Torre in the US.
In September, the former CEO was summoned to appear before the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions of the US Senate to testify in relation to the bankruptcy of Steward Healthcare.
Following his refusal to appear and testify before that Committee, the President of the Senate authorized proceedings against de la Torre in terms of law.
Now the lawyers who will be taking up his defence in Malta are expected to argue that there cannot be two parallel criminal cases ongoing before two jurisdictions.
So they intend to ask for information to confirm whether the proceedings in America impinge upon the merits of the case in Malta or which is to take precedence.
The case was deferred to January.