The Anti-Corruption Commission has said that it is investigating possible involvement of the Bank of Maldives and the Maldives Monetary Authority’s financial investigation unit in one Maldives’ largest corruption scandals.
The commission said that they are looking into allegations that employees of the bank and the state-run investigation unit had been involved in embezzlement through the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation and that a case against them will be built if facts support it.
The commission released findings on the corruption scandal, in which former president Abdulla Yameen was allegedly involved and his deputy implicated, on Monday, after Yameen lost his bid for re-election in this year’s presidential elections.
Further, the allegations say that employees at the Bank of Maldives facilitated the transfer of USD 22 million from the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation to the account of a privately-owned company.
The amount, which totals at 22,145,000, was transferred through a ‘bankers’ cheque’ issued by the national bank to the state-run corporation, bearing the signature of the corporation’s then managing director.
The commission has found that a total of MVR 1.4 billion had been embezzled through the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation, while a previous audit placed this amount at MVR 1.22 billion.
The Bank of Maldives had previously said that while large sums of money were transferred through the bank to a privately-owned company, identified as being the now sanctioned Scores of Flair, it had shared reservations about the transfer with central bank Maldives Monetary Authority.
A Bank of Maldives employee had blown the whistle on the embezzlement. Qasim Abdul Kareem, the assistant manager at the bank’s branch in Nilandhoo of Faafu atoll, had been found guilty for his involvement and sentenced to a year and four months in prison.
The central bank has been criticized for not adequately addressing the matter, after the embezzlement became public.
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