Malé, Maldives – Former President Yameen Abdul Gayyoom’s defence team has submitted 18 pieces of evidence for the defence in V. Aarah money laundering and bribery case.
Preliminary hearings for the case will be held on 11 April 2022 following which the Criminal Court will decide whether the case can be settled via Civil Court.
Prosecution is charging former President Yameen with money laundering and acceptance of a bribe of USD 1 million from former MP of Felidhoo Constituency Yusuf Naeem. The charges for both parties are as follows.
- Former President Yameen Abdul Gayyoom – Money laundering under Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Act, 2014 (Act No. 10 of 2014) and acceptance of a bribe under Chapter 510(a)(d) of the Maldives Penal Code (Law No. 6/2014)
- Former MP of Felidhoo Constituency Yusuf Naeem – Bribery under Chapter 510(b)(d) of the Maldives Penal Code (Law No. 6/2014)
The Prosecution detailed a timeline of the alleged events, stating that on 15 September 2015 Yusuf Naeem handed over a check of USD 1 million which was deposited to ex President Yameen’s HSBC account on the following day, 16 September 2015.
President Yameen allegedly transferred USD 1,001,409 from the HSBC account to his BML account on 22 February 2016. USD 1,295,000 was then transferred to an MIB account from the BML account almost a year later on 21 February 2017.
A month later on 14 March 2017, USD 3,413,230 was then transferred to a general investment account at the same bank, MIB, for 36 months.
The prosecution is seeking to seize the alleged bribe amount, any additional amounts from ex-President Yameen’s bank accounts and any resulting profit from investments.
