The High Court has stayed a case involving USD one million that entered former President Abdulla Yameen's personal account.
The case was filed against Yameen and the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) by Bank of Maldives (BML) over an escrow account opened at the bank between Yameen and ACC to deposit questionable funds for a period. The case revolves around USD 1 million of alleged laundered funds, intended for the Maldives Marketing and PR Corporation (MMPRC), which were deposited into Yameen's personal account at Maldives Islamic Bank (MIB) through two cheques. Yameen had initially refused to surrender the funds to the ACC. Consequently, an agreement was reached to hold the funds in an escrow account at BML. The funds entered Yameen's account at MIB in November 2015, and the escrow agreement was signed between Yameen and ACC on March 15, 2018, ahead of the 2018 presidential election. It later came to light that the funds deposited into the escrow account were not the original USD 1 million in Yameen's MIB account.
In February of this year, the Civil Court ruled that BML was accountable for matters related to the escrow account. Following this ruling by Judge Azfa Abdul Ghafoor, BML filed an appeal at the High Court, questioning whether the Civil Court had the jurisdiction to hear the case.
On Sunday, the High Court ordered the Civil Court to halt any further proceedings until the High Court makes a decision on the jurisdictional issue.
Former President Abdulla Yameen
