Former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and others are to be charged with fraud, money laundering and making fraudulent gains, as well as conspiracy to commit an offence punishable by imprisonment of more than four years, a report by Maltatoday reads.
Charges were issued on Monday after the Vitals inquiry concluded at the end of April. It was then passed on to the Attorney General.
A news report by the media house states that Muscat, as well as former minister Konrad Mizzi, will face charges of accepting bribes and corruption, while Keith Schembri, who was Joseph Muscat’s Chief of Staff when he was prime minister, will face charges relating to the solicitation of bribes and abuse of office.
The news report also read that Brian Tonna and Karl Cini will be charged together along with Nexia BT with assisting in crimes. David Joseph Meli – legal representative of Steward Management Ltd, meanwhile, is accused of corrupting public officials, it adds.
The concessionaire’s IT manager, Clarence John Conger-Thompson as well as Christopher Spiteri, its auditor, will also face charges related to bribery, the report reads. Spiteri is also accused of acting dishonestly while carrying out the activity of an auditor or accountant, and making false declarations.
In addition, Spiteri is also accused of either omitting or making false declarations for entrepreneur Shaukat Ali Chaudhry and his family members, MaltaToday adds.
Spiteri as an auditor and in his personal capacity, as well as Jonathan Vella, Ivan Vassallo and Mario Victor Gatt are accused of false accounting, it reads, in their personal capacities and in representation of the companies Eurybates Ltd and Technoline Ltd.
Representatives of MTrace and Gateway Solutions Ltd Jonathan Bondin and David Meli, as well as Spiteri are accused of making false declarations to an authority, it reads.
The report also reads that the court is being asked to impose freezing orders on Muscat, Mizzi and Schembri, as well as Adrian Hillman and Pierre Sladden, to the tune of €30 million each.
Other freezing orders have also been requested.
If guilt is found, aside from any court centence, the court is also being asked to confiscate assets up to those values and order perpetual interdictions, it reads.
Magistrate Rachel Montebello has been assigned the cases.
The Vitals inquiry was initiated in 2019, following a request by Repubblika for such an inquiry to be carried out. Muscat had recently said that he had ‘no doubt’ that he would be charged, insisted he did nothing wrong and said that if justice exists, he will be a free man. “Just as the Egrant inquiry exonerated me completely, the same will happen here. I know what I did and didn’t do,” Muscat said.
