Business Maldives Private Limited has decided to submit a case to the Supreme Court for the possession of Baa atoll Hibalhidhoo following the receipt of additional documents of payment in connection to the island.
Mohamed Riyaz, the company's main shareholder, said the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the state in the Hibalhidhoo case because there was no evidence to prove that the company had paid USD 3 million (MVR 46 million) to develop a resort on Hibalhidhoo. However, he stated that the state had published documents of the transactions in a report released during former President Abdulla Yameen's trial.
"It is not my responsibility if the state does not receive the money. An audit would have been conducted as one year and six months had passed. The audit report would have highlighted if the money was not received," he said.
He added that the company had paid for the purchase of the island but had not received any compensation for it. He said the company had been owned by him for a long time and the acquisition cost of the island was paid by the company. He said the decision to add Mohamed Allaam Latheef (Moho) on behalf of former Tourism Minister Ahmed Adeeb as an additional shareholder of the company was taken after payment of the acquisition cost and signing the sales and purchase agreement were already made.
He said the payment documents were then in the office of Mohamed Allaam Latheef (Moho), the former shareholder of Business Maldives Private Limited.
"Since Moho had stakes, the documents pertaining to the purchase of Hibalhidhoo were in the SOF office. They still have to pay USD 17 million. That amount has also not been paid to [Business Maldives]. As the payments were not made, we later removed that share," Riyaz said.
Riyaz said the shares of Hibalhidhoo were given to Allaam because the then Tourism Minister Ahmed Adeeb wanted to enter the business.
"The Minister's name cannot be put on the agreement. So, he always put Moho's name on it," he said.
When the development of a resort in Hibalhidhoo began, Adeeb also expressed interest in entering the business, so Riyaz decided to involve him. Riyaz said Adeeb had assured him that he would find an investor to develop the resort on the island.
"I asked the Minister where our money would be collected from. He said that he would find an investor. 'Don't ruin it when I bring the investor.' His language was like that. 'Bro, don't ruin it'," he said.
He said he was asked to come to the SOF office to sign the agreement after the investor was brought to Maldives.
"He had a British passport. He was of Sri Lankan descent. He came on a private jet. He said, 'I have to leave in the evening'. It was about 14:00hrs then. A procedure is needed to integrate a foreigner into a local company. That is why Moho had to sign [in place of the investor]," Riyaz said.
He said that although the agreement was under Allaam's name, the project is being funded by a foreign investor. He said the company has not received the due money and has not met the investor since then.
Hibalhidhoo was initially allocated on lease to Rishwan Shareef on May 17, 2000, for agricultural purposes. Subsequently, the island was leased to Business Maldives on February 23, 2011. Riyaz mentioned that although the island was acquired for agricultural purposes at that time, efforts were made to initiate tourism activity on the island.
He said that he and his business partners had discussions with the Ministry of Tourism and senior state leaders along with a Russian national. However, before an agreement could be reached, there was a change in government.
On July 23, 2013, LetsGo Maldives, in which Riyaz also had stakes in, applied to the then Ministry of Tourism to transfer the island for the development of a tourist resort in Hibalhidhoo. Subsequently, on November 4, 2013, the island was transferred to LetsGo and the owner of Russia's Benago Management Company, Mikhail Prokhorov, for resort development.
The lease agreement was signed between the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) and the government on August 10, 2014. Following this, the sales and purchase agreement was signed between MMPRC and Business Maldives. Subsequently, an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was conducted, and the concept development for the resort began. However, in 2015, weapons were found on the island during the investigation into the assassination attempt of the then President Abdulla Yameen, who was targeted by setting off an explosive on the President's official speedboat "Finifenmaa". As a result, resort development on the island was halted. On June 26, 2016, the government announced the cancellation of the agreement with Business Maldives.
In 2021, the Supreme Court upheld the High Court's decision affirming that the possession of the island by Business Maldives was proper.
Sign In
