Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1523932
7 NEWS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 14 JULY 2024 Programme Manager (EU Funds) Within the Office of the Prime Minister (European Funds, Equality, Reforms and Social Dialogue) Just three days after this letter, Ernst gave instructions for the cre- ation of the political support fund. "After this time, there appears to have been a period of rapid pro- gression to a stage where the issue was presented to Cabinet. This may indicate that the issue had received undue intervention and support by Ministry of Tourism and OPM via the persons of Konrad Mizzi, Keith Schembri and Prime Minister Jo- seph Muscat," the inquiry says. It goes on to suggest that one pos- sible interpretation of the evidence is that Steward's requirement for assistance and consent in the mat- ter "warranted the creation of the political support fund for €1 mil- lion". Investigators believe it was not a coincidence that "two days after the first payment of €125,000 from Steward ta Accutor, Accutor's chairman and OPM's Chief of Staff [Keith Schembri] began communi- cating via WhatsApp over the next 12 months". The inquiry found that over the entire period that the eight pay- ments for €1 million were made by Steward to Accutor, no less than six WhatsApp groups were active. Schembri was in "frequent, and sometimes daily" contact with Ac- cutor's chairman Wasay Bhatti. Investigators believe that the political support fund was placed with Accutor AG to administer as agents but remained "under the control of Keith Schembri and pos- sibly on behalf of OPM and Minis- try of Tourism". Steward's attempt to smear Fearne According to evidence that has been presented in court so far, Fearne stood in the way of Stew- ard's attempt to carve out the Barts property from the concession. Even after the change in admin- istration in January 2020, Steward continued to negotiate with gov- ernment in an attempt to siphon off more money and make the con- cession bankable. At this point, the negotiations were taken over by Fearne. Sources privy to those nego- tiations have told MaltaToday that Steward kept bringing up agreements and commitments it claimed to have made with Fearne's predecessor in a bid to extract more money from the gov- ernment. Fearne was proving to be a stum- bling block, which culminated in Steward's surreptitious move to finance a smear campaign against the former deputy prime minister. An investigation by the Organ- ised Crime and Corruption Re- porting Project in collaboration with Times of Malta and the Bos- ton Globe has revealed how Stew- ard paid private investigators to dig up dirt on Fearne. When they found none, they concocted a fake story implicating Fearne and his political aide Carmen Ciantar in a case of bribery over the sale of a Maltese passport to a Russian. The investigators then tried to plant the story in the media and when no reputable organisation played ball, the stories surfaced in obscure Pakistani and Ukrainian news portals. Last week, the Speaker of the House asked the police to afford Fearne and his family protection, calling the Steward-funded smear campaign an attack on Maltese de- mocracy. He also asked the Foreign Minis- try to raise the matter with the US embassy, given that Steward is an American company. Investigations by the Maltese po- lice into the smear campaign and its perpetrators are ongoing. Fearne has also been charged in connection with the hospitals deal and stands accused of mak- ing fraudulent gain and enabling others to benefit from this. He has pleaded not guilty and his defence is trying to show that someone who stood in Steward's way and refused to accede to the compa- ny's demands could not have aided and abetted wrongdoing. Only last week, the Auditor General testified in court that in his three-part investigation of the hospitals deal he found no wrong- doing by either Fearne or Edward Scicluna. The case against them and many others is ongoing. had objected to Barts property sale Labour ministers, including Chris Fearne (third from right) with Steward CEO Armin Ernst (second from right) and former prime minister Joseph Muscat at the official opening of the Barts campus at the Gozo General Hospital The Facebook post in which Joseph Muscat eulogises the success of the Barts Medical School