Malé, Maldives – The High Court of Maldives ruled to revoke the Criminal Court’s decision to freeze the bank accounts of a company under suspicion of money laundering.
Criminal Court on 16 January 2022 released a court order to freeze all the accounts of a company under suspicion of money laundering in accordance with a police request. The court ordered five bank accounts under the company to be frozen from 16 February to 15 May 2022.
While the state is charging the company with large scale financial transactions on the black market using a company registered in the Maldives and using telegraphic transfers (TT) for false imports into the country to transfer large amounts of money out of Maldives.
In their defence, the company noted that the Criminal Court’s order was not issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism Act and requested for the bank accounts to be released immediately.
The state agreed with the company in this case. The three judges panel at the High Court thereby ruled in favour of the company and nullified the Criminal Court ruling.
