Malé, Maldives – SOF company, a big name in the Maldives Marketing & Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC)’s corruption scandal, has had its bank account released as ordered by the Civil Court.
SOF’s bank account was frozen in 2020, for its role in the corruption involving MVR 1.22 billion, which was to be received by the state from MMPRC, during President Abdulla Yameen’s regime.
The freeze was ordered by the Civil Court at the time, after the state sued SOF for having had a USD 2.5 million cheque issued to MMPRC, credited to SOF’s account.
Local media have reported that the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) has confirmed that the authority has knowledge of the Civil Court’s Order issued earlier this month.
It was also reported that the Commission is currently in the process of attempting to re-freeze the account within the next week.
It is yet to be known why the Civil Court issued the order to release SOF’s bank account and the amount of funds in the account at the time of release.
At the height of the MMPRC Corruption scandal, SOF was primarily accused of being a key party which laundered MMPRC’s money involved in the corruption. Despite this, the management of the company was never charged by the state, claiming that the strategy was to obtain information and evidence required for the investigation.
With this being one of the most infamous corruption scandals of the country involving a great sum of money, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih put together and formulated the Asset Recovery Commission of the Maldives in 2018, so as to investigate, take action and recover the stolen funds.
However, the commission failed in its efforts to do so, and was eventually dissolved with no funds recovered, landing the case on to ACC’s lap.
SOF’s management, which comprises of Mohamed Hussain, Ishfaah and Allaam, all live abroad as the case continues to go on.
