An auditor charged in the Vitals hospitals scandal has voluntarily ceased to carry out audits from this year, the accountancy regulator has said.
In a public notice, the Accountancy Board said auditor Chris Spiteri has voluntarily stopped his audit functions.
A criminal inquiry into the Vitals/Steward hospitals deal alleged that Spiteri acted as a “professional money-launderer” for people suspected of siphoning off funds from the €4 billion government contract to run three public hospitals.
Spiteri is facing a raft of charges, including forming part of a criminal association with ex-prime minister Joseph Muscat, his chief of staff Keith Schembri and ex-health minister Konrad Mizzi.
He vehemently denies the claims and has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
When contacted about the accountancy board notice, Spiteri said he has voluntarily decided to take a step back from auditing due to personal reasons.
He said the decision was in no way linked to the Vitals case.
The inquiry pinpointed Spiteri as being at the centre of a web of companies set up by “secret” Vitals owner Shaukat Ali and his family members.
Spiteri helped the Alis in setting up several companies directly involved in the healthcare concession.
Many of these companies are suspected to have subsequently been used to siphon off public money into private hands.
Investigators concluded Spiteri was privy to the “relatively enormous value of funds and additional benefits extracted by the Ali family” from the deal.
These included lucrative consultancy contracts, employment contracts, luxury cars, travel and IT supply deals.
They further allege that Spiteri was complicit in helping key players like Ali conceal the extent of their interests in the hospitals deal.
He also used his client account as a funnel for suspicious transactions, including for a medical cannabis firm suspected to be linked to the former OPM chief of staff, the inquiry alleged.
Investigators further allege that Spiteri accepted a €50,000 bonus from Steward to audit Vitals’ accounts and give the company a clean bill of health.
This was done to ensure a smooth takeover of Vitals by Steward when the American healthcare company took over the concession in 2018.
Investigators said the bonus was offered to him via Ali’s son Asad.
The bonus was “secretly built-in” to Spiteri’s audit fee and spread across the audit engagement fees for five companies.
In accepting the bonus, Spiteri “set aside his professional ethics” and undermined the validity of the audit.