Pakistani intermediaries sue Steward over unpaid €2.8 million Vitals had promised them
Two Pakistani citizens who acted as brokers to help Vitals Global Healthcare enter Malta are suing their successors, Steward Healthcare Malta, for failing to pay them €2.8 million that had been promised to them.
The lawyers Franco Galea and Jean Pierre Busuttil last month presented a court action on behalf of Mohammed Shoiab Walajahi and Sarwat Shoiab Walajahi, requested the payment of the missing funds.
They attached as evidence an introducer’s fee agreement the Walajahis had signed in March 2015 with Crossrange Holdings Ltd, a now-defunct company owned by Canadian-Pakistani businessman Ram Tumuluri. The agreement was certified by the law firm DF Advocates.
In it, both parties state that Mohammed Shoiab Walajahi had provided Crossrange with introductory services in relation to “the project and the entry and execution of the memorandum of agreement”.
This was a reference to the MOU that the Maltese government had signed with the investors of Vitals in October 2014, six months before a public call was issued for the management of San Luqa, Karin Grech and Gozo hospitals which Vitals ended up winning.
The agreement obliged Crossrange to pay the Walajahis an initial €30,000 within 30 days, and another €2.8 million within 60 days of its final agreement with the government.
The Walajahis agreed to forfeit the €2.8 million and waive their rights to sue the Tumuluri company in the event that an agreement cannot be reached with the government.
As part of the agreement, the Walajahis undertook to keep the agreement confidential, not to represent anyone connected to Crossrange, to avoid contacting any of its customers, clients or business partners, and not to work to any potential competitor for ten years.
A clause stipulates that if a court finds any provision of the agreement to be invalid or unenforceable, the parties must do their best to replace it with a valid provision that achieves the objectives “to the extent possible”.
On 19 June 2015, the Walajahis signed a new agreement with Bluestone Investments Malta Ltd and Vitals Global Healthcare, both represented by Tumuluri and Mark Pawley, to transfer the obligations of Crossrange to them.
Nine days later, Vitals was announced as the government’s preferred bidder for the hospital project. Two years later, Vitals sold its franchise to Steward after having financial problems.
However, the Walajahis said in their application to the court that while they received the initial fee of €30,000, they are still waiting for the €2.8 million almost eight years later, despite several promises – including “recently” – that the money will be paid. .
The application to the court comes as Malta is awaiting the outcome of a multi-billion civil case that the PN Deputy and former Leader Adrian Delia had presented against the Vitals-Steward hospital agreement, with a judgment expected in the coming days.
Delia is arguing that Vitals had broken several terms of the concession and that therefore the government had no right to allow the transfer to Steward.
In a recent an interview with Lovin Malta, Delia said that he is confident that justice will be done and that he expects the government to have a full contingency plan in place in the event that the agreement is scrapped.
Cover photo: From left: Ram Tumuluri, Gozo General Hospital (Photo: Steward Helathcare), Mohammed Shoiab Walajahi
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