The Civil Court has issued a temporary order to freeze the bank accounts of two individuals and ten companies in connection to funds owed to the state via Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC).
The court order, which was issued last Tuesday night, ordered to freeze the bank accounts of state fugitive Mohamed Allam “Moho” Latheef and his father, Abdul Latheef Abubakr.
The companies whose accounts have been frozen under the court order are:
SOF Pvt Ltd
SOF Studio Pvt Ltd
SOF Service Pvt Ltd
Wild Almond Pvt Ltd
Prenzer Printers & Publishers Pvt Ltd
Dhivehi Media Group Pvt Ltd
SOF Development Pvt Ltd
Gladian Pvt Ltd
Gladian Management Pvt Ltd
Business Maldives Pvt Ltd
In addition to freezing the bank accounts, the court order further instructed the companies to refrain from changing the ownership or selling off any shares that Allam Latheef and Abdul Latheef own in these firms. The companies were also ordered to not change the ownership of any of their assets.
The court order comes after the state filed a lawsuit against Allam Latheef, Abdul Latheef and SOF, claiming that a cheque of USD 2.5 million given to MMPRC had been deposited in an SOF bank account. The state had requested the temporary court order for all ten companies as Allam and his father own shares in all. The Civil Court acquiesced, stating that there were potential difficulties for the state to recover the money as the reason.
The state had also requested to freeze the bank account and withhold the assets of Ahmed Ishfah Ali who had worked in SOF. However, the court had declined, noting that the state was unable to show any connection between Ahmed Ishfah Ali and the lost funds being sought.
Allam Latheef is currently abroad and on the run after it surfaced that he was involved in MMPRC’s corruption case which came to light in 2015. It was the largest such scandal in the history of the Maldives in which state funds amounting to a staggering MVR 1.22 billion, which were acquired through island leases for resort development, were embezzled via the corporation. The investigation had revealed that a hefty amount of the embezzled funds were distributed through his company SOF’s accounts.
Meanwhile, former Vice President Ahmed Adheeb and MMPRC’s former managing director Abdulla Ziyath have been convicted of being involved in the corruption as well. They are serving prison sentences of 33 years and eight years respectively. The state has levied numerous more charges against them over the embezzlement, and the trials are still ongoing.
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