Prosecutor General (PG) Hussain Shameem has said that Football Association of Maldives' President Bassam Adeel Jaleel is the main suspect in the corruption case against the association. Shameem went on to say that charges will be pressed against Bassam during this coming week.
Police have earlier searched the FAM premises on November 22 on an investigation into allegations of misappropriation of funds gained through international organizations.
In a press conference held Thursday, Shameem stated that there are regulations in the country on how to handle funds received from international organizations. Shameem said that there are allegations of misappropriation of such funds by the leadership of FAM.
"In this case, the allegations are against those leading FAM. So far, we see FAM President Bassam as the prime suspect," Shameem said.
"Our accusation, or rather the police's accusation, is that FAM is using the funds granted to them from FIFA for various reasons in contradiction to the laws and regulations of Maldives," he said.
He added that although FIFA sends the funds to FAM, the money is meant to be for the people of the country.
Shameem said that they have seen a large amount of money having been spent in various ways, including heavy spending on foreign trips made by some among FAM leadership. He added that this information is available as the spending on these trips are made through cash cards.
"We have knowledge of where they went, which hotels they stayed in, which malls they visited. Specifically which shops they bought certain items in. All this information is saved in a system," he stated.
He alleged that FAM's handling of some paperwork goes against "how mankind usually handles documentation", resulting in more time being needed to unravel and obtain details from such documents.
"We believe we will gain further information in the next few days," Shameem said.
The PG stated that the information gathered by financial institutions are sufficient to raise charges, and additional matters are being considered at the moment prior to proceeding with pressing charges.
Shameem added that it is not his responsibility to remove the accused from positions at FAM, but that it remained at the discretion of member clubs.
"If FAM members say they want people like this to be leading them, then it's FAM's own business," he said.
"Our work involves initiating an investigation into the accused and proceeding with those cases...travel bans and such are up to the police," Shameem explained.
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