Dalli said that this message was a reference to his belief that former Malta Enterprise CEO Mario Galea had helped bring Vitals (which was once called Vitalis) over to Malta.

On the other hand, he – in his role as trade envoy – had tried to attract the California-based healthcare firm AHMC to Malta after receiving a directive from Malta Enterprise to find companies interested in attracting medical tourists to the island.

Muscat shut him off at the time, stating that he was with his family and “not in the mood” and telling Dalli to speak to him the next day.

Dalli did just that, messaging Muscat again the following morning asking if he has some time. Muscat responded a few minutes later, saying “tell me”.

“I’m concerned about the Cerberus deal,” Dalli responded, a reference to the private equity which had owned Steward at the time.

“Why in one sentence?”, Muscat responded.

“Cerberus has a history and also current grey standings on several dealings. I believe this can be easily used against us,” Dalli said.

“Not concerned, anything else?” Muscat said a minute later.

“One of their owners Ezra (J. Ezra Merkin) was even involved with Madoff,” Dalli said, a reference to the convicted Ponzi scheme operator Bernie Madoff.

“They’re holding back financials with the state of Massasuchetts.”

“Not of any concern. Steward is very solid. Anything else?” Muscat asked.

“And they’re being investigated for paying off government officials,” he added.

Here, the conversation got a bit heated as Muscat expressed his frustration.

“It’s bull, Ġuż,” Muscat said. “Listen, let me tell you something. I have not appreciated your attitude as of late. Very condescending. I respect you but please stop. Now I need to get back to my family. Good day.”

However, Dalli pressed on, insisting that he was just giving Muscat a heads-up and asking him to explain how his behaviour could be interpreted as condescending.

“You know what I mean,” Muscat replied. “From giving ‘advice’ to everything else, including trying to bring our name in to get an anti-Clinton article. Now please stop and don’t take too much offence. If you were anyone else I would ignore you.”

Dalli said he considers Muscat a friend and isn’t taking offence but that he truly doesn’t understand “where that’s coming from”.

“I said what I had to say. I’m sure you aren’t stupid. Now I’m off. Good day. By the way Steward went though enhanced due diligence and were pushed by the US government. See you,” Muscat said.

“US interests aren’t necessarily your interests Prim. I wanted to give you a heads-up so we don’t get bamboozled again. I think it will help too if you demand that they are open about the deal. If we do so after it comes into question due to their past, it will be too late,” Dalli warned.

“Good day, we are covered,” Muscat concluded.

The two men go way back.

Dalli said he first spoke to Muscat in 2008 after he was elected Opposition Leader and decided to join his team out of encouragement that he could bring positive change to Malta.

“He was 35 years old and it seemed like he wasn’t part of the old guard. A fresh face, a good message; when you hope for change you tend to grasp at anyone who offers it to you,” he told Lovin Malta.

Dalli said he volunteered for the PL during the 2013 election campaign, training candidates to stay on message when speaking in debates and interviews and when posting on social media.

“For example, if we wanted to get a particular message across, we would bring the candidates to our office beforehand and give them pointers to stay on message,” he recounted. “It’s a methodology used in the US and other countries to make sure the candidates stay on point.”

In 2014, Dalli was appointed as Malta Enterprise’s commercial representative to the US and Canada, with the government seeking to make use of his extensive experience in international business management to attract American firms to the island.

“I had a very limited budget so I would work with local chambers of commerce and business organisations and opened four operations – in Houston, Toronto, Boston and San Francisco,” he said.

Dalli said he brought four or five American business delegations over to Malta but that Malta Enterprise didn’t show much interest in advancing their plans forward.

At one point, he received a directive from Malta Enterprise to find American companies interested in investing in Malta for medical tourism purposes.

Dalli said that US healthcare firm AHMC were keen and that then-CEO Mario Vella was interested in meeting them but never got to do so due to personal reasons that unexpectedly arose.

In March 2015, Projects Malta issued a request for proposals for a concession to manage and operate St Luke’s, GGH and Karin Grech, and in June of that year Vitalis (which would become Vitals) was awarded the concession.

It would later emerge that the government had already signed a memorandum of understanding with the Vitals investors a few months before the tender was issued.

“I wasn’t given a heads-up about the tender and by the time I reached out to AHMC it was already too late for them to launch a bid,” Dalli recounted.

He said his initial reaction upon finding out that Vitals had won the tender was “that he thought it was a joke”.

“This wasn’t just a regular project but a cornerstone of the government’s economic plan to bring medical tourists to Malta,” he explained.

“You cannot just hand responsibility for this to a company with no healthcare experience which had only started a corporate presence months before winning the tender, and then say they will spearhead medical tourism.”

“You need pre-established channels and a network in place to funnel medical tourists, and unless you’re a millionaire and advertise a lot, the plans won’t materialise.”

In January 2017, Dalli decided to call it a day. Donald Trump, who he had campaigned for, had become US President and Dalli decided to start a new job with the US government.

However, he remained in touch with Muscat via WhatsApp and although he wasn’t involved in the 2017 election campaign, he flew to Malta to vote and met Muscat at his home on the day he was re-sworn in as Prime Minister.

Looking back at his WhatsApp exchange with Muscat in light of the recent landmark court decision on a case opened by PN MP Adrian Delia which annulled the Vitals-Steward concession, Dalli said he believes the then-Prime Minister wanted deniability.

“I think he knew what was going on but he didn’t want to end up in a situation where someone could prove that was the case,” he said.

“All he could have done was to tell me to dig further into it and let him know or tell me that he’ll have someone look into it.”

“However, he just said it’s bullshit and that the US government is pushing for the Steward deal, which wasn’t even true. I think he just passed that comment to try and shut me up.”

Lovin Malta reached out to Muscat but he declined to comment.

Cover photo: Joseph Dalli (left) with Joseph Muscat at the former Prime Minister’s home soon after he won the 2017 election

What do you make of this exchange?