Benefit fraud ‘mastermind’ paid €126,000 as TM medical consultant

Former Labour MP Silvio Grixti, the alleged mastermind behind the disability benefits fraud racket, was paid €126,000 for medical consultancy services to Transport Malta under an arrangement that continued while he was on police bail.

A reply to a parliamentary question by Nationalist MP Julian Borg shows that Grixti worked as a consultant to the government’s transport regulator between January 2020 and November 2022, advising on medical conditions relevant to applications for driving licence renewals.

The consultancy was awarded through a direct order and began when Transport Malta was headed by chairman and chief executive Joseph Bugeja.

It continued beyond Grixti’s forced resignation from parliament in December 2021, following police questioning over suspected fraudulent medical certificates linked to the alleged benefits racket.

Transport Malta retained him as its medical consultant for almost another year, despite the investigation, which was made public, involving the same area of professional responsibility: medical certification.

The €126,000 covered services provided both while Grixti occupied a Labour parliamentary seat and after his departure.

Grixti was brought before the court in March 2024 alongside Roger Agius, Emanuel Spagnol, Dustin Caruana and Luke Saliba over their alleged involvement in a scheme to obtain disability benefits through fraudulent documentation.

He has pleaded not guilty.

The prosecution’s case centres on allegations that false medical certificates, allegedly produced by the former Labour MP, enabled claimants to receive payments for severe disabilities they did not have.

Beneficiaries have described referrals through Labour canvassers, party clubs and people linked to government offices. These accounts have placed the alleged operation’s political connections under scrutiny.

The Shift reported in September 2024 that Grixti faced a €4.5 million asset-freezing order, with separate amounts imposed on his co-accused.

In May 2026, The Shift reported that a revised court decree limited the assets subject to Grixti’s freezing and seizing order to €1,414,364.

That decree followed an earlier blanket freezing order issued by Magistrate Rachel Montebello in April 2024.

His Transport Malta engagement lasted until November 2022, nearly a year after his resignation from parliament became public following the police investigation.