A UK-based forensic accountancy firm hired to investigate the Vitals deal has gone into liquidation and is being wound up.
Harbison Forensics Ltd began winding up proceedings on October 11 and has now appointed a liquidator to dispose of its assets, public documents indicate.
The liquidation was cited in a judicial letter filed by Ronald Mizzi on Tuesday, in which he put Harbinson on notice that he intended to seek compensation from it.
Mizzi, a former permanent secretary, is one of dozens of people who face criminal charges in connection with the Vitals deal to privatise three state hospitals. He is pleading not guilty to charges and claims the charges are based on incorrect work carried out by Harbinson-led investigators.
Harbinson Forensics was incorporated in May 2018. A forensic investigator who worked on the Vitals case testified earlier this month that the company coordinated investigative work for the magisterial inquiry, led by Magistrate Gabriella Vella.
Justice Minister Jonathan Attard has said that the Vitals probe cost €10 million in total.
Harbinson Forensics, led by Jeremy Harbinson as a director, had also carried out investigative work for the Maltese judiciary for another high-profile inquiry, concerning allegations that offshore company Egrant was secretly owned by Joseph Muscat’s wife, Michelle.
In his judicial letter, Mizzi said that Jeremy Harbinson had “surprisingly and without justification” signed the final report not in his personal capacity, but rather as director and representative of the company.
That report was “replete with technical errors, factual inaccuracies, selectivity in evidence collection, erroneous hypothetical conjectures,” and other well-documented shortcomings, claimed Mizzi.
Mizzi, as one of the persons charged, claims to have suffered “huge pecuniary losses and damages as well as reputational harm” as a result of the report, and said that those damages were the result of “malicious and/or negligent actions” by Harbinson and the company.
In a bid to secure his right to claim damages, Mizzi filed a judicial letter before the First Hall, Civil Court holding both Harbinson and the company directly responsible for damages.
He also requested liquidation and payment of those damages, failing which he would take all necessary legal action, including precautionary warrants to secure his claim.
Notice of that letter was given to the liquidator handling the company’s winding up so that Mizzi’s claim would be “formally registered in the liquidation process.”
Harbinson and the company would be held directly responsible for damages even if the liquidation and striking off goes through. Lawyers Stefano Filletti and Maurice Meli signed the judicial letter.