Fresh accusations have been made against Bank of Maldives (BML) for depositing non-negotiable checks from several private companies as acquisition cost to the company account a local company called SOF.
The checks were sent by various local companies to Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) as the acquisition cost.
Meanwhile the issue has been brought to the attention of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in light of several images regarding the mentioned checks making rounds on various social media platforms. The commission had confirmed investigation was underway.
The authority’s information officer Mr Hassan Manik had earlier confirmed the national bank; Bank of Maldives (BML) was currently under investigation regarding the infamous ‘MMPRC Scandal’ which involved money laundering in a nationwide scale.
Though Mr Manik confirmed the bank was under investigation he had refused to disclose further details due to the ongoing nature of the case.
In banking language, non-negotiable checks cannot be deposited to accounts except for the ones for which the checks are made – meaning the account payee is subject to the receivable of cash on an exclusive basis.
The posts shared on various social media posts so far showed several of such non-negotiable checks made to MMPRC were deposited into the corporate account of SOF by BML. The posts also showed involvement of other local banks as well.
A thorough audit report has shown Maldives government faced a loss of MVR1.3 billion over the money laundering scandal initiated under the state-owned marketing and public relations corporation.
The national bank had always maintained its stance and continued to reiterate denying any involvement in the scandal, further denying the accusation of non-negotiable checks being deposited into accounts other than the designated payee.
The bank in a recent financial committee meeting had further stressed on denying any involvement over the scandal.
Previous audit reports and investigations carried by ACC shows checks endorsed by MMPRC were deposited into the corporate account of SOF Private Limited. However, during the initial reporting news of non-negotiable checks were not disclosed.
Recently the Anti-Corruption Commission came forth during a parliamentary questioning session to reveal extracting necessary documents for the investigation from BML were faced with challenges.