There was enough evidence for Muscat and the co-accused to stand trial in the Vitals case, except for Sciacca Grill, the court ruled on Tuesday
Muscat and co-accused to stand trial, but Sciacca Grill discharged
13:06 | Decree and adjournment
The magistrate is back in the court room and decrees that there is sufficient evidence to justify that all the defendants, with the exception of Sciacca Grill, be placed under indictment. Sciacca Grill is therefore discharged.
This does not mean that Sciacca Grill has been exonerated but only that there was not enough evidence to suggest that Sciacca Grill ought to be formally accused with the crimes that were attributed to it.
The sitting is adjourned to Thursday, 1 August, at 10am.
Julian Delia
12:46 | ‘Malta Enterprise misled Court in Cyclotron testimony’
Reliable sources confirm a statement by Jason Azzopardi, who accuses Malta Enterprise of having lied under oath. Read the full article
Michael Kaden
12:03 | Sitting suspended
The court suspends the hearing to take into account the submissions made by defence lawyers today. It will deliver its decision on the prima facie evidence stage in about 45 minutes.
Julian Delia
11:37 | The renounced briefs, again
The prosecution responds to the request filed by Arthur Azzopardi earlier this morning, when he renounced briefs and complained about the freezing order’s impact on his remuneration.
They are leaving this to the court’s judgement, given the sensitivity of the case and that there were no changes in the circumstances of the case since then.
The court asks Arthur Azzopardi to substantiate why Technoline is requesting to pay for the expenses of Eurabytes and Gateway Solutions. The lawyer confirms that these two companies do not have the financial means to pay for the defence’s fees.
Reaching a conclusion on Azzopardi’s request, the court states that it must ensure that the assets of the companies in question are not stripped to pay for the debts of other companies.
The court will issue its decree in camera (closed sitting) and directs Gateway and Eurabytes to, if they so please, formally file requests with the same court to pay for their legal fees.
Azzopardi declares that he will resume the brief if and when this matter is resolved.
Following this resolution, Azzopardi resumes his defence of Technoline, Eurabytes, and Gateway Solutions, linking with his earlier submission in defence of Brian Bondin through which he took the inquiring magistrate’s experts to task for failing to indicate probable fraud.
The lawyer claims that Gateway Solutions was not solely set up to purchase Technoline’s shares because it existed before 2013, far before anything incriminating was publicly known about his clients.
“We do not have any references to anything illegal being done by Gateway Solutions in this inquiry report”, he says.
The lawyer continues cherry-picking quotes from the court experts’ reporting on his clients economic activity and how it is linked with the hospitals concession, arguing that the loan payment issued to Gateway was repaid in full and that there is no clear indication of criminal activity.
Much like his fellow defence lawyers, Azzopardi fails to acknowledge that such cases involve substantial layering and masking of transactions and that the experts’ verdict on the financial activity carried out by Technoline, Gateway, and Eurabytes must be taken into consideration as a whole rather than parsed on an individual basis as is being done in court by a long, long list of defence lawyers.
Julian Delia
11:21 | Lawyer: Court needs to prove criminal intent
Jason Grima repeats in another submission from the defence what was previously stated by other defence lawyers, insisting on the need for the court to prove not just wrongdoing itself but also the intent to commit wrongdoing
He further echoes the rest of the defence lawyers’ narrative by claiming that nobody interrogated Jonathan Vella, adding to the litany of defence complaints about the police’s failure to investigate the hospitals concession independently.
Grima complains that Vella’s bank accounts were not exhibited as evidence in front of the court, claiming that the only income that would be visible in his accounts would amount to lawful income from his employment with auditor Chris Spiteri. He clarifies that Vella served only as an accounts clerk at Spiteri’s firm.
It is pertinent to note that Vella was nominated as company secretary for Bluestone and that he had resigned in December 2016, and that his lawyer is now claiming that Vella was only appointed as secretary in a perfunctory manner rather than in an active one.
Julian Delia
11:02 | Magistrate: Lawyer ‘blackmailing’ court
Magistrate Rachel Montebello returns and immediately takes Arthur Azzopardi to task about the request he filed earlier this morning announcing his decision to renounce his clients’ brief, asking him to regulate his position.
The lawyer claims that this is solely a payment-based issue due to the fact that the companies in question are unable to remunerate him.
Furiously, the magistrate accuses him of blackmailing the court by renouncing his brief before a decree on the issues raised in his request is made.
Azzopardi claims that the court’s freezing order on the companies’ assets from 21 June means he cannot be paid for his work, which is why he is requesting the court to rule on this freezing order.
The court issues an order for the prosecution to be informed of Azzopardi’s request.
Now, Azzopardi is given permission to make a submission on behalf of his client Brian Bondin.
Adopting a similar vein to fellow defence lawyer Chris Cilia, Azzopardi targets the court experts’ reports and claims that his client is only cited as someone who is linked with “potential fraud”, arguing that this means they weren’t even able to establish “possible” or “probable” fraud and that this means they did not manage to build a case that needs to be answered for.
Julian Delia
10:31 | Short suspension
The court chides lawyer Arthur Azzopardi about failing to inform Ivan Vassallo about dropping his brief before the hearing.
Magistrate Rachel Montebello shortly suspends the sitting so Azzopardi can explain to his now-ex client why he dropped his brief.
Julian Delia
10:23 | ‘Created narrative’
Lawyer Chris Cilia, representing MTrace, refers to “the narrative” which he claims was “created” by the court’s appointed experts. Over four and a half years, he says, in spite of drawing several conclusions about Josie Muscat’s involvement and over a hundred testimonies, they never actually summoned him to testify in this case.
Generally, his approach as defence lawyer has been consistent so far, repeatedly attacking the credibility of these experts without ever justifying what incentive such experts would have to create such a narrative.
He goes on and on, describing experts’ reports and investigations as “gratuitous assertions” and this “narrative” as “nothing but a fairytale”.
Cilia is asked to explain why his client, MTrace, failed to pay its 31% end of the Cyclotron deal it was supposed to uphold with Malta Enterprise.
Cilia says that all conclusions drawn against his client are based on the notion that VGH are the hidden owners of the Cyclotron project, a narrative which he again describes as untrue without outlining why such experts would fail to substantiate their claims and what incentive they would have for doing so.
Julian Delia
10:11 | ‘Schembri-companies skimmed money’
Referring to Sciacca Grill, Kasco Foods Ltd, lead prosecutor Francesco Refalo says that this company was given numerous contracts, along with other Schembri-owned companies, to supply the hospitals.
“We are saying that these companies are taking a percentage of concession money, skimming money”, Refalo says.
In fact, the experts who were appointed by the inquiry explained how this tripartite agreement was created, a practice that was used frequently by the primary stakeholders in other arrangements to skim money off the top of public-private deals.
“In reality, there was never any need for these companies to be middlemen”, Refalo argues. He anticipates the defence’s rebuttals about Schembri having divested himself from these companies in 2013 – 2014: “just because he was no longer listed as director does not mean he is no longer linked to the company”.
Refalo cites the magistrate’s conclusions, arguing that “if all this is not enough to go past the prima facie stage, then I don’t know what else the court needs”.
Franco Debono springs up to complain about the prosecution’s submission about his client, Sciacca Grill. He criticises the prosecution for not citing precedent nor referring to evidence.
Debono refers to two previous cases in which individuals accused of serious crimes were exonerated at the prima facie stage and claiming that the prosecution is being reductive with its approach to the prima facie stage.
Julian Delia
10:04 | ‘Flimsy’ charges
Veronique Dalli now speaks about how the forensic analyst, Miroslava Milenkovic, referred to Taomac Ltd just once in the inquiring magistrate’s report.
Malta Enterprise had recommended Taomac Ltd be brought in as foreign direct investment.
She makes an elastic claim, if we’re being honest: if Taomac Ltd is charged with money laundering on what she had described as ‘flimsy’ charges, then no foreign company can rest assured that its investment will be safe in the country if not even a recommendation from a state-owned company guarantees that all is well with a contractual arrangement of this kind.
The gist of the argument is that Taomac Ltd was misled by the government and the concessionaire, Dalli charges.
Julian Delia
09:58 | Jason Azzopardi’s claim
Lawyer Veronique Dalli wants to continue right where she left off – from a heated exchange with lead prosecutor Francesco Refalo in defence of her client Taomac Ltd.
Chris Cilia, another defence lawyer, wishes to raise another point before submissions from the prosecution. He claims the defence is being misrepresented by Jason Azzopardi, who claimed on Monday that Malta Enterprise was lying under oath when claiming the cyclotron is working.
We are currently investigating Jason Azzopardi’s claim.
Chris Cilia is taking aim at the court for issuing “a gagging order” on the accused but not taking any action in regard of individuals like Jason Azzopardi. The court makes it clear its order was to the accused, not to individuals who are not linked with the case.
Magistrate Rachel Montebello invites Cilia to formally file a request with the court if he wishes to get the court’s judgement about this particular claim made by Azzopardi.
Julian Delia
09:55 | No money for lawyer
Defence lawyer Arthur Azzopardi renounces Eurabytes, Technoline, Gateway Solutions as clients, but retains his clients Ivan Vassallo and Brian Bondin.
Ivan Vassallo (Eurabytes, Technoline, Gateway) declares that the companies do not have the financial means to hire a lawyer so they will now need to figure out alternative arrangements.
Vassallo seems to have been caught by surprise, expressing as such to the court and stating that he will inform the court about what his alternative choice will be.
Julian Delia
09:52 | Good morning
Julian Delia is reporting live from Hall 22. The prosecution, the defence and the accused are in the court room.
It’s day eight of the court proceedings related to the fraudulent hospitals concession. We are minutes away from another hearing featuring disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat and his former associate and colleagues.
During the last hearing, we heard 15 testimonies and a particularly solid intervention from the office of the attorney general. While the prosecution expressed confidence in the evidence backing up its case against Muscat and the other accused, the defence focused on the Cyclotron saga, a contentious project that was beset by repeated delays.
