The Labour government allowed foreigners to steal millions of euros from Maltese taxpayers (Vitals/Steward).
Courts found fraud — but the ICC arbitration in November 2025 ruled Malta got fair value for what it paid. The 'foreigners' framing also erases the Maltese officials at the centre of the criminal case.
Courts found fraud — but the ICC arbitration in November 2025 ruled Malta got fair value for what it paid. The 'foreigners' framing also erases the Maltese officials at the centre of the criminal case.
We tested Borg's framing against the ICC International Court of Arbitration award of November 2025, Maltese criminal proceedings against Joseph Muscat, Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri, Constitutional Court of Malta judgments on the concession, NAO Vitals audit reports, and Times of Malta / MaltaToday investigation archives. The methodological question is whether 'stole millions' and 'foreigners' survive contact with the arbitration award and the criminal case file.
Verdict lands at Misleading because the ICC tribunal ruled the concession void from inception, rejected Steward's €148M claim, and on restitution principles found Malta received roughly equivalent value (€889.4M in vs €884.6M out) — and the criminal proceedings against Muscat, Mizzi and Schembri make clear Maltese officials were at the centre of the scheme rather than only 'foreigners'. The deep-dive lays out the arbitration outcome, the criminal case file, and the genuine harm in stalled hospital infrastructure; this editorial note is methodology only.
Did foreigners really steal millions from Maltese taxpayers
Few stories in Maltese politics provoke a cleaner reaction than the Vitals-to-Steward hospitals concession. Three state hospitals — St Luke's, Karin Grech, Gozo General — handed in 2015 to a then-unknown company called Vitals Global Healthcare, with promises of redevelopment that never materialised. Then sold on to Steward Health Care, an American operator. Then ruled by the Maltese courts to have been fraudulent from the start.
When Borg told the Pieta rally that the government had let 'foreigners steal millions of euros from Maltese taxpayers', he was reaching for that reaction. The story he's pointing at is real. But two of his words don't fit the record.
What the courts actually said
In February 2023, Judge Francesco Depasquale annulled all contracts awarded to Vitals and Steward. His judgment found 'fraud and bad faith' in the original concession and ordered all property returned to government ownership. The Court of Appeal upheld that judgment in full — and dismissed Steward's separate appeal challenging it.
On 3 November 2025, the International Chamber of Commerce arbitration tribunal published its final award. The tribunal held the concession had been 'legally void from inception', rejected Steward's contractual claim of around €148 million, and applied restitution principles under Maltese law.
The financial reality is stranger than the rhetoric
Here is where the 'stole millions' framing meets a wall. The ICC tribunal calculated:
- Total benefits received by the Government of Malta: €889,434,091
- Total benefits received by Steward Healthcare: €884,644,629
- Net result: a €4.78 million shortfall owed to Steward, not the other way around
Read literally, Malta is up almost five million euros on the entire concession — at least on the ICC's restitution accounting.
That isn't 'stolen millions'. It's something more uncomfortable: a fraudulent contract under which the state ended up roughly square. What was lost wasn't cash. It was time, and capacity. Years that should have gone into rebuilding St Luke's, Karin Grech and Gozo General were instead spent on a concession structure that didn't deliver the redevelopment it promised. That's a real harm — but it doesn't fit the word 'stole'.
And about 'foreigners'
Vitals Global Healthcare's parent company, Bluestone Investments, was registered abroad and connected to figures from outside Malta. Steward Healthcare is a US operator. So the shorthand 'foreigners' isn't pulled from nowhere.
But the criminal case unfolding before Maltese courts tells a different story about who actually orchestrated the deal. Joseph Muscat (the former prime minister), Keith Schembri (his ex-chief of staff) and Konrad Mizzi (the minister who signed the deal) are co-defendants in a corruption trial that has now passed the threshold for indictment. They are facing charges of corruption, money laundering, fraud, conspiracy and bribery. Fourteen people and nine companies are charged in total.
Investigators have alleged Muscat received €60,000 in consultancy fees from Swiss firms linked to the deal. Bluestone Investments reportedly received at least €21 million in transfers from Vitals — and reportedly spent over a million euros on jewellery, private school fees, luxury cars and five-star hotels.
If that money was taken from Maltese taxpayers, it was taken with the active assistance of Maltese officials at the very top of government. Calling it a 'foreigner' problem erases the Maltese half of the conspiracy.
So is the claim accurate?
There are real findings of fraud here. There are credible allegations of corruption against senior Maltese politicians. The hospitals concession was a genuine scandal that genuinely cost Malta years of badly-needed infrastructure investment.
But the specific claim — that foreigners stole millions from Maltese taxpayers — distorts both the financial outcome (the ICC found roughly balanced restitution) and the cast of characters (the Maltese officials at the centre of the criminal case).
Verdict: Misleading. The kernel of truth — that fraud was found — is real. The wrapping around it isn't.