Former President Yameen under investigation

Aljazeera reported that a court in the Maldives had frozen the bank accounts of their former President Abdulla Yameen as part of an investigation into allegations of financial fraud.

Background

The Maldives is an Islamic republic which lies off the Indian sub-continent. It is made up of a chain of nearly 1,200 islands, most of them uninhabited. Development of the infrastructure in the Maldives is mainly dependent on the tourism industry and its complementary tertiary sectors, transport, distribution, real estate, construction, and government.

Mohamed Nasheed was the first democratically elected President of the country. Protests broke out in 2011 over the administration’s inability to operate effectively. After an escalation of protests in February 2012, Nasheed resigned. He later said that he was forced to resign with a “gun held to his head” in a coup. Abdulla Yameen succeeded Nasheed after a highly contested election in November 2013.

In February 2018, the Yameen government declared a 15-day state of emergency. Soon after, security forces stormed the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court judge, chief justice and chief judicial administrator were arrested, as well as Gayoom, now a member of the opposition who had expressed support for the ruling.  Mohamed Nasheed, in a Twitter post, said Yameen has "overrun the judiciary and legislature, arrested hundreds of unlawfully and introduced a "new normal" in the Maldives - full dictatorship".

The recent Presidential elections in the country were on 23 September 2018. Incumbent President Abdulla Yameen ran for re-election. However, his only challenger Ibrahim Mohamed Solih won by 58 per cent of the vote, or 134,616 ballots and Yameen garnered 96,142 votes or 42 per cent.

Analysis

The former President of Maldives, Abdulla Yameen is under investigation of entering into deals, during his tenure and many of them involving Chinese infrastructure projects. As a result, a court in the Maldives has frozen his bank accounts. The Police also summon him over these allegations.

Ahmed Nihan, a senior legislator from the former president's party, said that he is also expected to be questioned over allegations over receiving 22.5 million rufiyaas in cash as campaign funds ahead of the recent presidential elections. Besides an anti-money laundering body informed the police that former President Yameen had received the hard currency.

Both of Yameen’s accounts at the National Bank of Maldives and in the Maldives Islamic Bank were frozen over the same case. Nihan, the former president's associate did confirm that the accounts had been frozen.

Nihan added that "President Yameen told us he expects to be questioned, arrested and even jailed, but he says there is no truth to any of the claims against him".

A letter from the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to Acting Commissioner of Police Abdulla Nawaz said that a third party deposited $648,508 in hard currency into the president's account on September 5. Another $810,635 was deposited to the same account on September 10. 

Fuwad Thowfeek, a former head of the elections commission, said the president appeared to have violated the provision on using a separate bank account for election-related expenses as candidates must declare every donation. However, he still has time to declare the source of funds.

Ibrahim Muaz Ali, a spokesperson for the president, dismissed allegations of wrongdoing. On Twitter, Muaz expressed that the president has a designated account for elected-related expenses, and there was "nothing illegal" about his campaign finances.

Regarding the Chinese infrastructure projects, many critics alleged that these contracts were given to Chinese companies at inflated prices — for example, the bridge connecting the capital Male to the main airport of the palm-fringed islands famous for their luxury diving resorts.

Yameen has also been accused of receiving at least $1m of the embezzled money into his private account at the Maldives Islamic Bank. Besides, the most serious of the former President’s allegations was one of the country’s biggest corruptions scandals ever. In the scandal, at least $79m from tourism revenues were diverted to private accounts and also was cashed out. The scandal involved the state-owned Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC).

Though the Anti-Corruption Commission confirmed that Yameen received that money; the commission also said the investigation was shelved as it could not reach the person who deposited the cash. 

Assessment

Our assessment is that the defeat of the former president in the recent presidential election in the country has resulted in these allegations coming into light. We feel through in the present process of investigations the authorities will take a firm and conclusive decision. We also believe that freezing of bank accounts is only the first step of investigation to figure out the source of funds to Yameen’s bank accounts.