USD 10M case against SOF re-submitted to court

The case against Scores of Flair (SOF) for failure to repay the millions of dollars it embezzled from the MMPRC in the sale of islands and lagoons for resort development has been resubmitted to the Civil Court.

The Civil Court ordered SOF to pay USD 10,708,271 to the MMPRC in September 2017. The company was ordered to pay the money over the course of six months, but failed to do so.

The Civil Court confirmed that the case has been filed with the court, but said the registration process was not fully done.

The failure to pay the money was initially heard by the Civil Court at its own initiation. But the case was dismissed after SOF’s officials failed to attend hearings.

Despite establishing that millions of dollars in sale of islands and lagoons were laundered through SOF, the prosecution had decided against pursing charges against any of the company’s shareholders.

The decision was announced during a hearing at the Supreme Court in the appeal of former president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom’s conviction in the Vodamula case. The conviction was overturned by the court in 2021.

The government had later released a list of people who the embezzled funds went to – which included incumbent parliamentarians.