The incumbent Grand Master of the Sovereign Grand Lodge of Malta risked his lodge’s international recognition following the publication of the Magisterial Inquiry on the Vitals fraud. Simon Cusens was recommended by Inquiry for investigation over tax evasion, but the Police are refusing to arraign him citing “exhaustive investigations”. They did however arraign his previous employee, Ivan Vassallo, to whom he sold his company on the back of the public funds that Vitals had received.
Simon Cusens is being forced to give up his post of Grand Master of the SGLOM and is expected to resign next November. The United Grand Lodge of England recommended his resignation citing potential recognition issues if he stayed in his post. He is currently also embroiled in another controversy following his involvement with irregular Freemason groups, and also launched a libel case against The Maltese Herald.
The Police have consistently refused to investigate high profile cases of financial crime involving state institutions and politicians embezzling public funds. The Magisterial Inquiry on the Vitals fraud remains one of the only investigations on politicians so far. Many individuals involved in shady deals that embezzled public funds, such as Simon Cusens, have so far successfully avoided any consequences or accountability for their involvement in widescale public fraud, due to widespread impunity enabled by the Police.
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