Parliament Secretariat decides to summon former Head of Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) at Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) to Public Finance Committee, to question regarding the financial transactions made as part of the corruption scandal of Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC).
A letter sent from the Parliament Secretariat said the Public Finance Committee wants to question Athif Shakoor, as the transactions were conducted when he served as the head of FIU at MMA. Moreover, the secretariat asked him to attend the parliament on February 26.
In a tweet following the letter addressed to him from the parliament, Athif said he has longed for an opportunity to detail how he performed in the 7 months he served as the head of FIU, assuring to answer the questions responsibly and honestly.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) investigative report on the MMPRC corruption revealed when Athif served as the head of FIU, he investigated and notified the then Governor of MMA Azeema Adam. ACC added the governor refused to forward the case to Maldives Police Service for further investigation adding however, she surfaced a new issue citing the lack of staff in the FIU. Athif resigned as the head of FIU, after Azeema refused to take necessary action on the issues identified.
Meanwhile, ACC has decided to submit a case at Prosecutor General's Office to raise charges against the key figures of MMA for negligence. The report publicised the bank accounts and identities of the owners of the bank accounts involved in the scam, and the islands leased by the corporation.
The report published on the website of ACC shows investigation on 57 islands, further highlighting the acquisition cost of the islands were deposited to other bank accounts after endorsing checks rather than depositing it to the bank account of MMPRC. The detailed report on the scandal stated USD 77.45 million should be deposited to MMPRC. However, only USD 12.5 million were deposited. Out of the USD 77.45 million, USD 1.5 million was deposited to Millennium Capital Management Private Limited.
ACC said the transactions did not state why such a huge amount was deposited to the company.