Hospitals Heist: Court confirms €30m freezing order on Shaukat Ali’s assets

The Pakistani/Maltese citizen considered to be the mastermind behind the hospitals heist, Shaukat Ali Abdul Ghafoor, has had his temporary freezing order on all his property converted into a €30 million “permanent” one until his court proceedings end.

Shaukat Ali contested a temporary freezing order imposed by the Court last July when he was arraigned and charged with corruption, embezzlement, and money laundering, among other crimes, following the magisterial inquiry on the hospitals.

Three public hospitals were given to an unknown company, Vitals Global Healthcare, with no funding and no experience, in what has been judged to be a fraudulent deal involving top government officials, including former prime minister Joseph Muscat who is also among the accused.

According to Shaukat Ali, who was introduced to the Labour administration by former PN Minister John Dalli, the freezing order breached his fundamental rights.

The Court denied his claims and said the freezing order would be in place until the proceedings ended.

Judge Edwina Grima also ordered a separate freezing order on two companies associated with him.

Global Assets Holdings Ltd, incorporated in Malta, was slapped with a €340,000 freezing order, while Mount Everest FZ LLC, incorporated in Dubai, now has a €5 million freezing order over its assets.

Judge Grima ordered that there were enough grounds to impose this seize and freezing order on Shaukat Ali, registered as living in an apartment at Sliema’s Tigne Point, to the tune of €30 million.

The sum of the freezing order is determined according to the maximum amount of funds claimed to be deriving from criminal activity.

Apart from Shaukat Ali, other family members, including his wife Aasia Parveen Shaukat and his son, are also being accused of criminal activity related to the hospital’s multi-billion deal with the Labour administration.

According to the magisterial inquiry on the corrupt deal, Shaukat Ali, 73, was ‘the brains behind the deal’, working with then-OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri, using “puppets” to act as fronts in various companies and roles set up to reap personal profits from what should have been a deal to manage three of Malta’s public hospitals.

“Shaukat himself has a lengthy track record of corrupt involvement with top government officials and, immediately prior to moving to Malta, his family were involved at the highest levels of Colonel Gaddafi’s notoriously corrupt regime in Libya, working with the healthcare systems there,” the inquiry states.

“Shaukat Ali was treated as and referred to by VGH / Steward Healthcare CEO Armin Ernst as ‘the major shareholder’ even though he never appeared as the Ultimate Beneficial Owner on paper,” it adds.

In addition to the estimated millions in personal transfers for fake consultancies found by investigators, taxpayer money was also used to buy companies providing medical services to the hospitals, increasing their profits.