Chris Fearne has refused to comment on whether he thinks his former boss Joseph Muscat is behind attempts to “frame” him.
Fearne has been linked to an alleged €3.2 million payment from a Russian passport buyer.
The website that initially pushed the claims, EU Reporter, has since taken the article down.
Questioned on Friday if he thought Muscat was behind the claims, the health minister and deputy prime minister said that while he has his ideas about who it could be, he will not be speculating in public.
Fearne instead urged the police to investigate where these claims have emanated from.
Pushed further as to whether he can exclude Muscat’s involvement, Fearne said he is sure the truth will emerge.
Muscat, who served as prime minister between 2013 and 2020, has been under the spotlight in recent weeks after Times of Malta, Shift News and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project exposed further details about suspicious payments he received from a Swiss company connected to key players in the Vitals/Steward hospitals deal.
Muscat vehemently denies any wrongdoing, and is seeking to have the magistrate leading a probe into the hospitals deal removed from the case.
Top aide's denial: "We are collateral damage"
Carmen Ciantar, a close political aide to Fearne, suspended herself from her role as FMS CEO this month over separate corruption claims peddled in the Pakistani media.
Ciantar said in a Times of Malta interview that she and her family are victims of a frame-up against Fearne.
“Clearly, my daughter and I are collateral damage. This is really a dirty campaign to try to discredit the deputy prime minister, who I have had the honour to work for and whose integrity he never gave me reason to doubt.”
Ciantar is a close political aide to Fearne, having led his successful Labour deputy leadership campaign in 2017.
Pakistan Today claimed Ciantar received €443,500 in payments from a company linked to Vitals Global Healthcare (VGH).
VGH was handed the running of the St Luke’s, Karin Grech and Gozo hospitals in 2015, one year prior to Ciantar being appointed as FMS CEO.
She denies the claims.