Judicial protest filed by whistleblower alleges social benefits racket cover up

A judicial protest claiming a coordinated cover-up by the Office of the Prime Minister, police, State Advocate and Attorney General of fraudulent schemes perpetrated by “the highest echelons of power” was filed in court by a whistleblower on Thursday.

The protest filed by Roger Agius, former driver and canvasser for junior minister Andy Ellul, claimed the OPM and members of the police force systemically ignored the whistleblower’s attempts to testify against high-ranking officials, including ones within the cabinet, in connection with the social benefits racket revealed last year.

The racket saw hundreds of people, mostly from Labour Party stronghold towns, fraudulently receiving millions of euro in disability benefits through a racket suspected to involve officials close to the Labour Party.

The judicial protest filed by lawyer Jason Azzopardi claimed the whistleblower’s attempts to inform the OPM and police of the high-ranking officials involved were “completely ignored”.

He claimed public coffers were being defrauded “of tens of millions of euro” with “the help, assistance, encouragement and complicity of a government minister, a parliamentary Secretary and several public officers with the aim of the ruling Party garnering more votes.”

The whistleblower said he “was a participant in this web” and acknowledged he must shoulder his own responsibility. However, he alleged a “cover-up was underway for the various other participants in this conspiracy to remain anonymous and immune from prosecution.”

As part of the scheme, he claimed he was instructed by a government official and member of the executive to ignore his duties as a government worker and “focus exclusively on constituency work for the Labour Party.”

The legal protest followed several attempts by the whistleblower to contact the OPM at the end of last year. Last month, he claimed he spoke to officials within the Police Force’s Financial Crimes Investigation Department (FCID) to no avail.

The whistleblower claimed his communications with the police, in which he named a sitting minister in the cabinet, were leaked to the same minister.

He also alleged the existence of another fraudulent racket within the police force in which low-ranking officers would systemically abuse sick leave benefits. He claimed the police also ignored his efforts to reveal this.

The whistleblower concluded his judicial protest by urgently appealing for a magisterial inquiry so that he could reveal under oath the machinations of “the criminal web thought up and implemented by the executive of the Maltese State.”