Malé, Maldives – The Criminal Court of Maldives has scheduled the next hearing in the case against former President Yameen Abdul Gayoom for money laundering and bribery in connection to V. Aarah for 11:30 on Sunday.
The previous hearing was held on Thursday on which the police presented mobile forensic exhibits from three iPhones that communicated with co-defendant Yusuf Naeem’s phone.
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.
