DID TRUMP ADMINISTRATION POLITICAL APPOINTEES AT DOJ QUASH FCPA CHARGES AGAINST AMERICANS IN THE MALTA HOSPITAL SCANDAL?

The failure of the United States Justice Department to charge any of those implicated in the alleged payment of bribes and kickbacks to senior government officials in Malta, who cooperated in the privatization of three state-owned hospitals, under extremely favorable terms to the purchasers, remains a mystery that reared its ugly head recently when a Maltese judge cancelled the entire contract for fraud. The Vitals/Steward scandal has led to calls for criminal indictments in Malta, against former government officials who allegedly benefitted.

Did Trump Administration ranking political appointees in the Justice Department insure that no investigation into which American businessmen paid bribes to secure the hospitals, under what must be considered unconscionable terms as to the people of Malta, because some of those individuals were major contributors to political campaigns of the Republican Party? I asked that question years ago, and the unofficial answer from a senior official at a government agency was that they knew no investigation opened would be permitted to get off the ground. One former government official later joined the Trump organization.

A review of campaign contributions records shows that extensive payments to Republicans running for office were made, and if you had any doubt of the relationship of the American businessmen to politics, no less a figure than Dan Quayle, the former Vice President under President George H.W. Bush, shows up as Chairman of one of the companies involved in the sale. Who were making these illicit payments behind the scenes, to facilitate the transactions?

Malta may politically implode as the consequence of the court action, which reportedly described the one-sided deal in painful detail, in a 140-page final judgment, but the role of Americans in that fraud needs to be explored, and the guilty parties duly charged with violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, lest more American businessmen choose to obtain lucrative contracts abroad through the payment of bribes believing that they can act with impunity.