Former Football Association of Maldives (FAM) President Bassam Adeel Jaleel today denied two charges related to the alleged misappropriation of funds sent by FIFA to the association.
In today's hearing of the first embezzlement and money laundering case against Bassam, the state presented and clarified the charges against him.
While two of Bassam's previous lawyers had withdrawn from the case, he appeared in court today with a new lawyer. The lawyer requested additional time to review documents and respond to the charges.
However, Judge Ismail Shafiu stated that the trial would not proceed that way and that they must respond to the charges today.
In the last hearing as well, the judge had instructed that Bassam must respond to the charges today, even if representing himself.
Following the judge's instruction, Bassam's lawyer stated that they deny both charges. According to the lawyer, Bassam denies the charges because the allegations do not reflect how events actually occurred.
Since Bassam has denied both charges, the judge granted a 10-day period for pretrial submissions. Therefore, the next hearing will be held to present these submissions.
The first two charges against Bassam alleged that he transferred USD 10,000 from FIFA funds to his personal account and used it for personal purposes, according to the Prosecutor General's Office.
The PG Office stated that while Bassam was FAM president, he transferred USD 10,000 from FIFA funds deposited into FAM's Bank of Ceylon account between July and August 2018 to his BML account in August 2018 by submitting documents to the bank. After deducting bank charges, USD 9,999 was deposited into Bassam's account.
The PG Office said that after transferring USD 1,910 to another person's account, the money was deposited into the account of Glacia Investment, a company owned by Bassam and his wife Aminath Maureen, and used for various company expenses.
Additionally, the charges state that Bassam used the money for paying rent for the Rehendhee flat he had leased and for other matters unrelated to FAM.
In this case, the state has requested the court to order the return of the USD 10,000 to the state. If convicted, Bassam faces a fine between USD 10,000 and USD 1 million plus imprisonment for 5 to 15 years.
The embezzlement charge in this case states that the dollar transfer from FAM's account to Bassam's personal account was presented to the bank as a currency exchange transaction. However, since FAM has not received the money to date, this constitutes embezzlement of those funds. The basic punishment for this crime is imprisonment for one year, seven months, and six days.
Bassam also faces additional money laundering and embezzlement charges in another case involving other FAM funds. The embezzlement charge in that case alleges he misappropriated USD 1.2 million of FAM funds to purchase an apartment from Amin Avenue of Amin Construction. If proven guilty, the punishment is also imprisonment for one year, seven months, and six days.
The second money laundering charge in that case was filed because Bassam allegedly used FAM's dollar account to pay various companies to transfer money to Amin Construction for booking fees, commitment fees, and other payments totaling MVR 25 million for purchasing two penthouses at Amin Avenue.
If proven guilty of this money laundering charge, the punishment is a fine between MVR 100,000 and MVR 1 million plus imprisonment for 5 to 15 years. In addition to the charges, the state has requested USD 1.2 million in damages from Bassam for FAM's losses and the seizure of the penthouses by the state.
In that case, the state has also filed charges against Amin company and former senior officials of FAM.
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