38 BML employees suspected of involvement in MMPRC scam

Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) says 38 employees of Bank of Maldives (BML) are under investigation for possible involvement in the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) embezzlement and money laundering scam.

Members of ACC was summoned for questioning by the Public Finance Committee of the Parliament regarding audits run on MMPRC this Tuesday.

In response to questions, President of ACC, Muawiz Rasheed said that cheques deposited by MMPRC to SOF Private Limited - the company which laundered funds embezzled from MPPRC – were in violation with the endorsement policy in the board resolution passed by MMPRC and shared with BML.

“The cheques were signed for endorsement by one person.  But this was done in violation of the company’s endorsement policy,” said Muawiz.

He said ACC’s investigators were questioning 38 bank employees involved in cheque approval and clearance process over the oversight.

He said the commission’s investigators have also questioned employees from the cheque clearance department of Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA).

“We are not focused on a specific rank [of employees]. We will investigate employees involved in the cheque approval and clearance process at the bank irrespective of rank for negligence,” said Muawiz.

Muawiz said a previous investigation by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) also found evidence of negligence by BML in connection with the case.

He said the bank failed to investigate the source or perform due diligence despite the repeated deposit of cheques with such large amounts to SOF Private Limited.

“It’s written in bold letters that the cheques are made out to MMPRC. Despite this, all of MMPRC’s cheques went into SOF. SOF didn’t receive cheques from any other source. So why didn’t BML investigate this?” said Muawiz. “The bank approved and cleared the cheques and then alerted MMA. This is an issue which has been raised by the MMA as well.”

BML, in a previous statement, said it approved all the cheques to SOF in line with the bank’s endorsement policy. It also said it alerted relevant agencies to the suspicious transactions.