Court orders Alhan and Kings Capital to repay investor over MVR 500,000

The Civil Court of the Maldives has ordered Kings Capital Holdings and its shareholders, former Member of Parliament Alhan Fahmy and his brother Shahuban Fahmy, to pay MVR 587,466 to an individual who invested in their investment scheme. The judgment, delivered in absentia last Thursday, requires the sum to be settled within 15 days.

The lawsuit was submitted by an investor seeking to recover a principal investment of MVR 120,000 across two installments, along with MVR 390,840 in promised profits that were never paid. Despite the court issuing three separate public summons for the brothers to appear, they failed to attend the hearings, leading to the default judgment.

The court's ruling concluded that the company and its directors clearly breached their agreement with the investor. In addition to the principal and profits totaling MVR 587,466, the court also ordered the defendants to cover MVR 76,626 in legal expenses incurred by the plaintiff.

This civil judgment follows long-running lawsuits involving the company’s "online trading" scheme, which police investigations previously revealed had collected over MVR 98 million from 1,864 people.

According to information shared by the police, King’s had previously operated a scheme that collected over MVR 98 million from 1,864 individuals, using a large portion of those funds for crypto currency or digital currency transactions, with funds reportedly diverted into crypto currency trading and the personal bank accounts of the shareholders.

While this civil case has resulted in a repayment order, the criminal proceedings against Alhan and Shahuban took a different turn earlier. In late 2023, the Prosecutor General’s Office filed 13 counts of fraud against the trio.

However, those criminal charges were later withdrawn after the PG Office stated that all 13 individuals involved in those specific complaints had been fully compensated and no longer wished to pursue the matter through the criminal justice system.

Despite the withdrawal of those specific charges, this recent Civil Court ruling highlights that legal liabilities remain for other investors who have not yet been reimbursed.