Hospitals’ heist boss forced to sell assets to pay growing debts

Businessman Ivan Vassallo, considered one of the leading enablers in the Labour government’s Vitals hospitals heist and a freemason, was ordered by the Court to sell some of his business assets, including a Fgura apartment and a vehicle, to pay some of his accumulating debts.

Through an order issued by Judge Edwina Grima, the Court’s appointed administrator of Vassallo’s frozen assets was directed to proceed with the sale of an apartment, a garage, and a car, to settle accumulating debts by Vassallo’s companies, including Eurybates Ltd, and others.

According to the Court’s order, the funds coming from this sale will remain frozen, but some of the proceeds are to be used to settle some €300,000 in accumulated debts.

These include €89,000 in VAT, €54,000 in unpaid tax, €43,000 to auditors, and €76,000 to the Lands Authority for outstanding rent of a kiosk and two garages, which Vassallo has not paid for years.

No specific details were provided regarding the latter; however, The Shift has learned that this issue pertains to a kiosk located on Xghajra beach. Vassallo acquired the kiosk from the government through a questionable deal in collaboration with Pierre Sladden, who is also among those accused in the Vitals case and is a close associate of Adrian Hillman, the former Managing Director of the Times of Malta.

According to a magisterial inquiry which led to the arraignment of former disgraced Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and others, Vassallo, Sladden, and Hillman, all members of the same freemasonry lodge, were allegedly the leading facilitators in the hospital scandal, acting on behalf of Keith Schembri, the former Chief of Staff at the OPM.

All Vassallo’s assets, including the notorious Technoline Ltd – a medical equipment company still doing business with the government – were frozen following his arraignment.

The Vitals magisterial inquiry had confirmed that Technoline was bought by Vassallo’s Gateway Ltd in 2017 and passed on to Vitals Global Healthcare through a series of companies used as fronts for money laundering.

While on paper, Ivan Vassallo appeared as the owner of Technoline, Pierre Sladden and Adrian Hillman were inserted as shareholders in other companies, including Gateway Solutions, to be able to buy Technoline.

The money – €5 million to buy the medical supplies company – came directly from the hospitals’ concession, as Vitals Global Healthcare had no funds until it started receiving millions from the government. The Shift revealed this in January 2019.

Just after Technoline’s takeover was finalised, Vitals Global Healthcare issued an exclusive contract for the procurement of medical equipment for the hospitals’ concession, thus guaranteeing millions would be funnelled through this arrangement.

Hillman and Sladden were the alleged secret business partners of Keith Schembri, heavily involved in the Technoline deal and the public hospitals heist.