Exotic Enterprises' shareholders changed before realizing theft of cigarettes

Deputy Speaker of Parliament and MP for Dhiggaru Ahmed Nazim has said that Exotic Enterprises had already changed company shareholders and notified Customs when they realized the theft of cigarette cases during a stock count.

Nazim revealed this in yesterday's meeting of the Committee on National Security Services (241 Committee) where two issues were in discussion: the theft of large amounts of cigarettes from two bonded warehouses, and 8,400 cigarette cartons being smuggled in via a Hawks fuel vessel.

Some issues regarding Maldives Customs Service were raised in a report compiled in relation to the Hawks case. The report also mentions the case of 575 cigarette cases which went missing from a bonded warehouse registered to Exotic Enterprises.

Nazim said that the loss of the cigarette cases had been noticed during a recount after the company had changed their shareholders and notified Customs of this.

He alleges that this was a premeditated scam.

"Very clearly, the company's ownership has changed from one management to the other. After changing this, the cigarettes were taken out from there and sold on," he accused.

As per the Business Portal, shareholders of Exotic Enterprises are Mohamed Shareef and Abdul Ahad Adnan. They were appointed as company directors on January 14, 2024.

The permit for the bonded warehouse under the company was issued in November 2023.

Nazim stated that Exotic Enterprises' latter shareholders did not possess financial capability. He said that it defies belief that the company's original owners would have given up their shares without getting some form of benefit from them.

Nazim further alleged that Customs involvement in changing the company's shares.

"This is a serious issue," Nazim asserted.

When imported, the price of the cigarettes would have been between MVR 30-40 million, Nazim estimates.

He maintains that this was an act of corruption orchestrated by a businessman. He said that the issue had caused a loss of MVR 67 million to the State.

Customs had earlier approached the Attorney General’s Office requesting MVR 67 million be sought in compensation related to the case.