Disgraced former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat skipped out on testifying in a case regarding the transfer of three public hospitals to Vitals Global Health care to attend “the most exclusive and influential gathering of family wealth ever held” in Dubai.

Publicly available documents show that between 7th and 9th December, Muscat was attending the Ritossa Family Office’s 13th Global Family Office Investment Summit. 

The event is described as a “private forum exclusively organised by family offices for family offices, ultra-elite private investors, prominent business owners, Sheikhs, Royal family members, financial families and their private offices from around the world.”

Over 250 family offices, conglomerates, Sheikhs, royal families, investment companies, business moguls representing over $4.5 trillion were in attendance.

The 100+ guest list included a veritable whos who across the world with members of the royal families of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, among others.

Political figures, including Ministers from Israel, who are on a charm offensive in the region, were also present.

On 9th December, the last day of the event, Muscat was meant to give testimony PN Leader Adrian Delia’s case over the deal.

Disgraced former minister Konrad Mizzi was also meant to appear, but he dropped out claiming COVID-19 symptoms had forced him to quarantine.

Both are now set to testify in January.

VGH had been granted a controversial concession for the Gozo General Hospital, St Luke’s Hospital and Karin Grech Rehabilitation Hospital. Mizzi was the minister responsible for the project.

It has been revealed that the government signed a memorandum of understanding months before a request for proposals was even announced.

The company was forced to sell off their operations to Steward Healthcare just 21 months after starting amid growing financial debt, which stood at €36 million by the end of 2017. Its CEO, Ram Tumuluri, reportedly still made off with a €5 million bonus.

An un-redacted contract revealed that taxpayers were paying VGH around €188,000 a day (€70 million a year) to provide hospital beds to the state, €1.2 million a year for the Barts medical school and a further €1 million for helicopter service.

Steward Healthcare was brought in to replace them. They were given certain assurances by the government, namely Mizzi and Muscat when they were brought in to save the failing concession.

This included a massive €100 million buyout should the concession be rescinded and a secret €8 million bank guarantee (which has since been waived).

Muscat was forced to resign in following the political crisis that erupted after the arrest of Yorgen Fenech in connection with the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

He has since made forays into economic consultancy, using the network built during his tenure as Prime Minister to his own personal advantage.

There have been claims from financial blogger Kenneth Rijock that Muscat is planning a great escape to Dubai in order to avoid prosecution. However, this has been vehemently denied by Muscat.

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