Male, November 28 (AVAS): Former Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayyoom has been found guilty of the money laundering charges raised against him.
The Criminal Court pronounced the verdict at a hearing held at the court on Thursday afternoon, and sentenced him to five years in jail. He was also fined by US$ 5 million, to be paid to the state within six months.
President Yameen was accused of defying the agreement between himself and the Anti-Corruption Commission, which stipulated the former president to move funds in his Maldives Islamic Bank (MIB) account that are suspected of having been laundered, into an escrow account set up between the two parties.
While two cheques worth US$ 1 million were deposited into Yameen’s MIB account by a private company named SOF Pvt Ltd, the funds are said to be embezzled state funds that were to be received by the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Company as acquisition cost for leasing islands for tourism purpose.
ACC instructed Yameen to move the deposited funds to the escrow account, however, President Yameen transferred US$ 1 million from his Bank of Maldives (BML) account instead of from the account in question. The transferred funds are reported to have been deposited into President Yameen’s BML account by former Tourism Minister Moosa Zameer.
Yameen was accused of attempting to cover up the source and trail of the original funds in his MIB account in an attempt to launder the funds. The original funds deposited by SOF Pvt Ltd were moved to President Yameen’s investment account at Maldives Islamic Bank.
