“Was Shaukat Ali really your unofficial advisor, as he claimed,” Joseph Muscat was asked. Muscat’s cryptic answer: “I have no say about how people describe themselves. The list of my consultants was public…. Mr Ali was not on it; he had no office in Castille.”

Who is Shaukat Ali? What links him to Muscat?

Shaukat Ali was one of the signatories of the ‘lost then found’ secret memorandum of understanding signed with Labour’s government. It paved the way for three public hospitals to be handed over to Vitals, a brand new company with zero experience in healthcare. The secret meeting between the government and the Vitals gang, including Shaukat Ali, was set up by Keith Schembri.

Times of Malta revealed that Shaukat Ali milked millions of euros from the hospitals’ concession. And not just him. His whole family was paid lavishly out of taxpayer’s money. His two sons, Asad and Wajid, his two wives and his daughter made millions.

Steward paid Asad’s company Eurasia €1.2 million. Steward paid Asad another €450,000 for “consultancy”. Steward also paid his brother, Wajid, for “consultancy”. Steward paid Bluestone investments, the company behind Vitals, €21 million. Bluestone, in turn paid Shaukat Ali’s UAE company, Mount Everest FZ, €1.4 million for “consultancy”.

Shaukat Ali’s wife, Fakhra was paid €125,000 by Steward. She received more money from Bluestone and another €300,000 from her husband’s Mount Everest FZ. Shaukat Ali’s second wife, Aasia received €70,000 from Steward and multiple other payments from Bluestone.

Muscat was paid tens of thousands of euros into his Bank of Valletta account by a company called Accutor AG. Accutor AG also paid hundreds of thousands to Shaukat Ali, his two sons and his two daughters and Ram Tumuluri. Accutor was paid €3.6 million by Steward, the bulk on the day Steward took over from Vitals.

Muscat received thousands more from a second company, Spring X media. Spring X and Accutor were both owned by lawyer Wasay Bhatti and registered at the same Swiss address. Another company called VGH Europe (suspiciously suggestive of Vitals Global Healthcare) shared the same address. Muscat was given an indefinite contract worth €15,000 monthly, €180,000 annually. His first payment was in March 2020, just days after his forced resignation.

Muscat claimed his payments were for work that was documented, fully invoiced and declared. But Accutor, which also paid Tumuluri, Shaukat Ali, his sons and daughter, described itself as a “global company offering payroll contracts and legal services”. Muscat is not a lawyer. He’s not a payroll expert either. So what work was he doing? “Consultancy”, just like Shaukat Ali and his sons?

“The work I did was carried out over a number of months,” Muscat claimed. He stepped down as prime minister in January 2020. By March, he received his first €15,000. Even if he’d started working the day after his resignation, that’s hardly “a number of months”.

Muscat met Bhatti, Accutor’s owner in 2017 while Muscat was still prime minister. Somebody else knew Bhatti – Schembri. Schembri put Yorgen Fenech in touch with Bhatti. Fenech contacted Bhatti just three weeks after he was exposed as 17 Black’s owner.

Steward received an extra €20m in addition to the €50m it had already been given by the state- Kevin Cassar

“I am looking to setup [sic] a structure for my personal business which gives a certain level of discretion and peace of mind,” Fenech wrote to Bhatti. Fenech wanted Bhatti to help him move money secretly out of 17 Black.

Muscat’s €15,000 monthly payments stopped suddenly in summer 2020.

Accutor went bankrupt. Spring X went into liquidation.

When Muscat was caught being paid thousands of euros by the company that received millions from Steward, he declared: “I do not have any relationship with VGH, Steward or any of the companies you mention.”

“I did not do like those who first negotiated on behalf of government on large scale deals and then went to lead the entity on the other side of the table,” Muscat stated in one hostile Facebook post. But, just days after he stepped down, Muscat led a Steward delegation to the newly installed Prime Minister Robert Abela.

Steward was trying to get more money from the state and wanted to change its contract. Muscat did most of the talking and fought Steward’s corner. The OPM refused to answer questions about why Muscat was at that meeting. Steward received an extra €20 million in addition to the €50 million it had already been given by the state.

Shaukat Ali, together with Ram Tumuluri, funded the takeover of Technoline Ltd. They provided Ivan Vassallo with a €5.14 million loan through their Jersey companies to buy out the owners. Within 19 days of the takeover, Vitals entrusted Technoline with the procurement of all medical supplies, ensuring a steady stream of revenue for Shaukat Ali.

Steward was obliged to retain Technoline as its exclusive supplier.

But Muscat had bigger plans.

The Albanian media reported that secret meetings were held between him, Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and “controversial tycoon Shaukat Ali” in September 2019. Zaev  previously met Muscat on November 14, 2018, in Skopje where Muscat was accompanied by Steward officials.

The Macedonian government reported: “The meeting between PM Zaev and PM Muscat discussed the intensification of relations between the two countries, among which a special focus on promoting cooperation in the field of health.” VGH subsequently signed MOUs with Montenegro and Albania, similar to the one it signed with Malta.

Exit News reported that Shaukat Ali was looking into a Balkan package deal under which Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro would provide a portion of their public healthcare funding for privately managed hospitals run by Steward.

Josie Muscat, who built the St James Hospital brand, was almost scammed by Shaukat Ali in 2015. Thankfully,  Josie Muscat was warned he was being duped. “Shaukat Ali was well connected to Castille,” was Josie Muscat’s wry comment.

How right he was.

Kevin Cassar is a professor of surgery.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.