Steward Health Care has claimed it has no relationship with a Swiss health firm run by a lawyer suspected to have passed on “kickbacks” to former prime minister Joseph Muscat.

The Swiss firm Spring Healthcare has long described Steward as its “clinical partner” on its website.

According to Steward Malta president Nadine Delicata, however, Steward has no commercial or other relationship with Spring Healthcare.

“We became aware that we were listed on the company’s website as a partner last year and demanded in writing that they remove us from the relevant pages, an action the company has not undertaken. We will continue to seek this correction through another cease-and-desist request,” Delicata claimed.

Last year, Steward ignored a request for comment by Times of Malta about its relationship with Spring Healthcare. Pakistani lawyer Wasay Bhatti, who is behind a web of Swiss companies, including Spring, hired Muscat as his “consultant” soon after his resignation as prime minister in January 2020.

Muscat’s home and office were searched earlier this year over suspicions that €60,000 worth of “consultancy” payments wired to him by Bhatti could have been cover for kickbacks in the Vitals Global Healthcare deal.

Both Muscat and Bhatti deny wrongdoing.

Steward paid in millions to one of Bhatti’s Swiss companies, Accutor.

According to Steward, Accutor was “nominated” by the Vitals shareholders as the company through which they wanted to receive payments for the hospitals’ buyout deal.

Steward took over the running of three public hospitals in 2018, after Vitals crashed out of the government concession amid claims of corruption and financial mismanagement.

Those behind Vitals deny any wrongdoing.

A magisterial inquiry into the Vitals deal has been ongoing for three years.

The inquiry was triggered by rule of law NGO Repubblika in 2019, after the police continued to ignore indicators of corruption in the hospitals deal.

Both Bhatti and Spring Healthcare are facing a fraud lawsuit in the US, having been accused by an American healthcare company of making “false representations” and, consequently, running off with $1.47 million (€1.49 million) meant for the supply of COVID-19 antigen tests.

Bhatti says the claims by the American company are unfounded in both fact and law.

A Maltese offshoot of Accutor, also run by Bhatti, has been breaching company law for years over its failure to file audited accounts.

It has also faced a cease-and-desist demand to stop listing a St Julian’s building as its registered company address in Malta.

Regus, a business address provider in Malta, has further accused Accutor Malta of ignoring its demands to stop listing its St Julian’s building as the company’s registered address.

In filings with the Malta Business Registry (MBR), Regus asked the registrar to put on record that Accutor Malta no longer has permission to list the address as its registered office.

“The company has been advised in writing on more than three separate occasions before us resorting to this communication with your kind selves,” Regus said in a letter to the MBR.

The fact there is no physical office and failure to file accounts are indicative that Accutor has abandoned its presence in Malta.