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Worthwhile Read: The OCCRP Report On The Maltese Healthcare Corruption Affair!

In February 2023, a public healthcare contract worth €2.1 billion was annulled by a Maltese court due to suspicions of fraud. Individuals behind VGH and involved in the contract benefited from over €1 million.

VGH, a group of three related companies, won the concession in November 2015, despite having only been recently formed and having no experience managing healthcare.

Ram Tumuluri, the former VGH CEO, submitted a whistleblower complaint to the U.S. SEC, accusing Steward of colluding with Maltese officials to secure its acquisition of VGH. Steward rejected the allegations and said in court documents that the deal it took over was “fraudulent” and “corrupt.“

The OCCRP report uncovers that VGH sent at least €21 million to its parent company Bluestone Investments Malta Ltd, funneling millions to Tumuluri and a Pakistani man named Shaukat Ali and his relatives. Bluestone Investments wired €5 million to two United Arab Emirates companies owned by Tumuluri and Ali.

Ali told OCCRP that his family members “worked for VGH as consultants or employees.” Via his lawyer, Tumuluri said “investors and shareholders invested close to $10 million into Bluestone” and that any payments to him “were for Bluestone-related ventures…(they) were not VGH funds.”

Bluestone also wired hundreds of thousands of euros to Accutor Consulting AG, a Swiss company owned by businessman Wasay Bhatti. Following Steward’s takeover, VGH (under its new name Steward Malta) sent around €6 million to several of Bhatti’s Swiss companies, Steward said that Accutor Consulting was “engaged…for legitimate business services.”

Two of Bhatti’s Swiss companies, Accutor Consulting and Spring XMedia AG, paid €60,000 to the former Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat. He stepped down in January 2020 but was in office when the hospital contract was awarded to VGH. Maltese investigators told the Times of Malta that they suspect a consultancy contract signed by Muscat in 2020 could have been used to disguise payments from the “fraudulent” hospital deal.

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Chris Fearne practises transparency

Chris Fearne, the Health Minister, has been practising his transparency exercises again, refusing to speak to the press about the millions which his outfit, the government of Malta, has paid to that other outfit, run by Ram Tumuluri, the shyster from British Columbia.

And while we’re on the subject, what’s with the Chris? They’re ministers of the government, for heaven’s sake, and should more properly be Christopher Fearne and Christian Cardona. I wouldn’t feel comfortable with a finance minister calling himself Ed Scicluna, or a deputy prime minister calling himself Lou Grech, or that so-called family minister calling himself Mike Farrugia.

Chris is not a name. It is half of a name. Chris is what your mates call you in the playground or on the pitch. But it should never be what you call yourself.

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Business stopped in Malta, they are suspected of corruption

Journalist Caruana Galizia states that the EU could, because of VGH, investigate corruption in the Government of Malta....

The company Vitals Global Healthcare (VGH) has no experience in managing hospitals and is not registered in Malta, and two years after signing the contract with the Government of that country, the project to manage the Gozo and St Luke's hospitals there did not come to life.

This is claimed by Daphne Caruana Galizia, a well-known journalist from Malta on her blog "Running Commentary".

She also raised suspicions that the agreement of the Government of Malta with Ram Tumuluri, a Canadian of Indian origin and the executive director of VGH whom she links to the Panama Papers affair, was pre-arranged, months before the public tender.

She stated that the report of the consulting company, made for the needs of the company that VGH approached for partnership, showed that there is a "danger of damage to the reputation".

The blog states that because of the dubious deal, there is also a danger that the EU could investigate corruption in the Government of Malta, especially because of the partnership with VGH.

VGH had a presentation in Montenegro last week, announcing that it is interested in investing in public health and managing it.

Minister of Health Budimir Šegrt was also present at the presentation in Podgorica. Besides him, the Minister of Sustainable Development and Tourism Branimir Gvozdenović also spoke.

VGH submitted an initiative to the Ministry of Health for granting concessions for the transformation of the health system. That project, they claim, would be worth 375 million euros, and VGH would manage hospitals in Montenegro for the next 30 years.

Ram Tumuluri then said that in three to four years they would build new and transform health facilities with partners in three phases.

The first, which should start next year, includes, among other things, new medical equipment and staff training. During the second phase, they would build new health centers in Budva and Tivat, a new regional hospital in Kotor and a general hospital in Herceg Novi, as well as a new clinical center.

The third phase would include the construction of new health centers, a general hospital for orthopedics and a special emergency room for clients of the ski resort in the north.

According to VGH's presentation, the Government's obligation would be to provide land, provide assistance in obtaining licenses, allocate part of the health care budget to VGH for management and conclude a concession contract.

In the blog of the Maltese journalist, it is pointed out that Tumuluri, formally the main man of VGH, is in fact just a cover for the interest group that was exposed in the Panama Papers affair.

She also cites a report prepared by a consulting company for the needs of the VGH partners. It states that in the two years since VGH entered into a deal in Malta to manage the health institutions there, it has not been able to secure finances, and has allegedly only been siphoning money from its partners.

The information that VGH could manage hospitals in Montenegro for the next 30 years was not favorably received by part of the professional public, due to the fact that no public healthcare system in the EU is managed by a private company.

The head of the plastic surgery department of the KCCG, Žarko Borović, told Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIN-CG) that he is not familiar with the details of the presentation, but it is unclear to him why a private company would manage a public health system, a system of the greatest social importance, a system in which a huge amount of money is turned, but which does not operate on the principle of profit, but on the principle of solidarity.

"I am not aware that anyone in the world has granted a concession for the management of public health".

He claims that by presenting the presentation, someone may have released trial balloons to see how the public will react to the "privatization" of state hospitals.

"Let VGH be the best private company, but no one has explained the interest of that company in investing in our health system and what they were promised, because charity certainly does not enter into the motives." Are they allowed to manage millions of euros as part of the concessions, and billions for the period for which the concessions are foreseen."

Director of the Health Insurance Fund, Adis Balota, said that a detailed analysis was not done, which indicates a lack of transparency.

"Concessions are not granted within the public, primary healthcare system, within the basic package of healthcare services".

Balota also claims that documents and strategic plans speak of a completely different concept of development and that such plans deviate from official policy.

"We can talk about private-public partnership for certain services, health tourism, aesthetic surgery, but the basic package of services should be guaranteed by the state, not a private corporation. What is the point of the existence of the Ministry of Health and the Institute of Public Health, if a private corporation will manage the hospitals".

The fund, he assessed, would then become a flow boiler that receives invoices and pays. Balota pointed out that the key problems in the system are not the capacities on which the VGH presentation is based, but the equipment, staff and better position of doctors.

About 200 million euros are allocated for public health in the annual budget.

Minister Micia will be questioned in Brussels because of "Panama"

Caruana Galizia stated that the newly appointed Minister of Health Konrad Mizzi was in charge of the partnership project with VGH on behalf of the Government of Malta, after his predecessor Godfrey Farrugia was summarily removed from that position.

At the end of September, "Times of Malta" announced that Minister Mizzi will be among the first high-ranking officials from EU member states to be invited to Brussels for an interview, due to his participation in the Panama Papers scandal. Mazzi will answer to members of the European Parliament committee, as he is linked to offshore companies from Panama, who made lucrative (free legal) deals with the Maltese government.

Although the list of all European politicians exposed in the Panama Papers who will have to report to Brussels is not yet complete, it is certain that Mzzi will be invited, said Werner Langen, a German member of the European Parliament, who chairs the EP commission that deals with money laundering investigations. and other non-transparent jobs.

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Why are Mark Camilleri and Jason Azzopardi defending Fearne when Daphne Caruana Galizia was the first to link Chris Fearne to Ram Tumuluri?

In the past few days, the name of Chris Fearne appeared in the international news in connection with the corrupt hospital deal signed by the Maltese Government with Vitals. What was rather strange or even bizarre was that Jason Azzopardi and Mark Camilleri defended Fearne. Mark Camilleri even stated that this was a campaign orchestrated by Joseph Muscat against Chris Fearne in the international news. Camilleri even mentioned my name and brought Yorgen Fenech into the picture by stating that Fenech disliked Fearne; therefore, this is Camilleri’s conclusion: Fenech has a vested interest in attacking him.

Nevertheless, what is strange in this whole affair is that Mark Camilleri and Jason Azzopardi all claim to be fighting for justice for Daphne Caruana Galizia. Now, if there was a person who was the first to link Chris Fearne to Ram Tumuluri, this person was Daphne Caruana Galizia herself. She linked Chris Fearne to Ram Tumuluri years before the international press in Pakistan and elsewhere started to make such a connection.

I am not investigating this case. What I am analyzing is what has appeared in the press. I find it strange that those who claim to be the supporters of Daphne Caruana Galizia are at the same time defending Fearne when Daphne had no qualms about attacking Fearne because of his government’s alliance with Ram Tumuluri.

Chris Fearne practises transparency

Chris Fearne, the Health Minister, has been practising his transparency exercises again, refusing to speak to the press about the millions which his outfit, the government of Malta, has paid to that other outfit, run by Ram Tumuluri, the shyster from British Columbia.

And while we’re on the subject, what’s with the Chris? They’re ministers of the government, for heaven’s sake, and should more properly be Christopher Fearne and Christian Cardona. I wouldn’t feel comfortable with a finance minister calling himself Ed Scicluna, or a deputy prime minister calling himself Lou Grech, or that so-called family minister calling himself Mike Farrugia.

Chris is not a name. It is half of a name. Chris is what your mates call you in the playground or on the pitch. But it should never be what you call yourself.

Therefore, in this whole story, something does not square up. Why should those who claim to be Daphne’s fans, including members of her family, be either with their mouths shut or defending Fearne when Daphne considered Fearne as an arrogant Labour minister and she was the first one to link Fearne to Tumuluri?

I hope that one day the truth will come out.