US federal agents have seized mobile phones belonging to former Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre and former Steward Malta CEO Armin Ernst, the Boston Globe has reported.
Citing sources, the Globe said agents served both men with a search warrant and seized their phones in recent days.
Both de la Torre and Ernst are among dozens of people facing charges in Malta in connection with the privatisation of three state hospitals – a deal a court struck off by a court last year, which concluded it was marked by signs of fraud.
However, neither of the two men has yet appeared in a Maltese court to answer to charges. De La Torre’s lawyers have said that is because he is also facing charges in the US, while Ernst’s lawyer told the court his client’s wife is ill.
De La Torre is Steward's majority shareholder and led the company in the US and abroad. Ernst served as CEO of its international operations, including its Malta branch, having previously served as CEO of the original hospitals concessionaire, Vitals Global Healthcare.
In May, Steward declared bankruptcy in the US, citing roughly $9 billion in liabilities. It is now being investigated for fraud, bribery, and corruption. The company was at one time the largest private healthcare provider in the USA.
Several Steward board members, including former US House Speaker John Boehner, have been summoned to answer questions as part of that probe.
Neither De La Torre nor Ernst has been charged by US prosecutors with any crime related to Steward’s bankruptcy so far, though De La Torre faces criminal proceedings over failing to testify when summoned by a US Senate committee.
But legal experts who spoke to the Boston Globe said the fact that both men were subject to search warrants suggested prosecutors were closing in on them.
Under US law, search warrants must be granted by a magistrate on the basis of “credible evidence” that a crime has been committed.
“This [search warrant] makes it more likely to me that the prosecutors think that [de la Torre] is a participant in a crime” not a bystander, Mitchell Epner, a former federal prosecutor in New Jersey, told the news outlet. “Very often in a situation like this the underlings have already been contacted.”
It is not known whether US prosecutors have been able to access the content of the two men’s phones. Another man facing charges in Malta in relation to the hospitals deal, former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, refused to give prosecutors the password to his phone.
A court heard last week that it will most likely take a year before the phone can be cracked.