Opinion: Our money isn’t coming back

Aqra bil-Malti

Robert Abela is bragging that he’s engaged top-notch Maltese and international lawyers to recoup the money Labour funnelled to Steward Health Care. How many millions, tens or hundreds, Abela won’t say, but he alone handed over €257 million of our money to them.

Now he’s claiming he’s getting it back. He can forget it.

Steward was forced to admit to a bankruptcy judge in Houston that they owed US$9 billion. Of those, US$1.2 billion are owed in loans, and another US$6.6 billion in unpaid rent on their hospitals.

They owe another billion to their suppliers who were never paid. Steward also owes US$290 million to their employees in unpaid salaries.

Steward is bankrupt. It filed for bankruptcy protection in May 2024.

Ray Schrock, Steward’s lawyer, admitted to Judge Chris Lopez that “the company was always very close to running out of cash”.

This is Labour’s real deal.  They were meant to invest €200 million in our health service. Yet their lawyer admitted the company never had any money.

Steward’s situation is dire.  It put all its hospitals up for sale to recover money to pay some of the debts.  It planned an auction of those hospitals on 28 June.  That day came and went, and no auction took place.

Steward was compelled to extend the auction date to 15 July.  On the day, Steward pushed the auction back again.  “The extension gives everybody time to develop robust bids,” Steward said. In reality, that delay was required because the only bids received were withdrawn.

Optum, one of America’s biggest health providers, is one of those companies that withdrew the bid to buy Steward’s hospitals. Why did Optum drop out? Because the US Department of Justice is investigating Steward for potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

The Justice Department is pursuing Steward for its part in the “seismic scandal” of our hospitals concession. Steward confirmed it’s being investigated over fraud and corruption in its international business dealings – that’s Labour’s fraudulent concession.

That should strike fear and trepidation into those who colluded with Steward in the industrial-scale looting of our coffers.

What should be even more terrifying for those who orchestrated that concession – Joseph Muscat, Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi – is that Steward announced it “is cooperating with an investigation by the US Department of Justice”.  The US has an extradition treaty with Malta.

Laura Cordes, a law Professor at Arizona State University, said: “A lot of eyes will be on that investigation”.

Joseph Muscat will undoubtedly be watching anxiously, biting his nails.  “Steward has already had trouble selling its assets, and this will not help matters,” Coordes added.

No company worth its salt wants to touch Steward with a barge pole now that the US Justice Department is investigating it. Steward won’t recoup any money if bidders keep dropping out.

Malta isn’t going to get its money back. Even if the international arbitration Robert Abela keeps bragging about goes in Malta’s favour, Steward has no money to hand over.  It’s gone.

It’s gone to Joseph Muscat’s friends.  Steward International Head Ralph de la Torre reportedly drew a salary of US$3.7 million in the last year.  Nine separate Steward officials were also paid more than US$1 million each in 2023.

Steward paid Shaukat Ali’s family over €7.6 million.  Malta CEO Armin Ernst, another of Muscat’s friends, arranged for Shaukat Ali to be paid an additional €80,000 per month as well as equity opportunities.

Ernst himself was paid an annual salary of €400,000 with discretionary company bonuses ranging from €100,000 to €200,000 annually.

Shaukat Ali’s €7.6 million were transacted via Accutor AG, the company that paid Joseph Muscat tens of thousands of euro into his BOV account.

The Boston Globe described Accutor as “a centralised money laundering hub for millions of dollars of payments to former prime minister Joseph Muscat, his chief of staff, his health minister (Konrad Mizzi) and Ali”.

Ernst wrote in an email in August 2019, “We have entered into a consulting agreement with Accutor supporting political and government activities and interactions.  Payment is €100,000 euro per month…Ralph (de la Torre) is aware”.

De la Torre is the man who allegedly offered Joseph Muscat a seat on Steward’s board of directors.  Ernst is the man Muscat accompanied to Castille to lobby Robert Abela to negotiate a “more bankable” deal for Steward.

De la Torre and Ernst were at the top of the Steward chain of command.  They were deeply involved in that fraudulent concession.  They were masterminding the collusion behind Malta’s biggest fraud.  “Ralph and I shook hands with the two major principles – father and son Ali (referring to Shaukat Ali and his son).  We assured each other that we are in this together,” Ernst wrote, “and we will take care of each other”.

“Please remember that without them, we would not even be close to having a shot at Malta, and quite a few of our prospects are tied to their relationships and efforts,” Ernst added.

When the Boston Globe reached out to de la Torre and Ernst, both refused to comment.  The Boston Globe also contacted Joseph Muscat.  “They did not deliver – whether it was their fault, our fault, a third party’s fault… they did not deliver,” he said.

The only thing Steward delivered were millions of euro of our money into Accutor AG which swiftly passed on payments to Muscat’s bank account for ‘consultancies’. They also delivered millions more to secret intelligence companies to destroy Malta’s deputy prime minister, The Times reported.

Steward owes US$9 billion.  They’re under investigation by the US Justice Department. They’re struggling to sell off their hospitals. No matter what Robert Abela says.  Malta isn’t getting its money back. Don’t let him fool you.