Mash’ar’s Farish charged with stealing over MVR 500,000 from hopeful pilgrims

The Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) has filed criminal charges against Ali Farish, the head of local tour group Mash’ar Hajj & Umrah, following an investigation that uncovered he embezzled over MVR 500,000 in payments collected from dozens of pilgrims.

Farish is accused of collecting MVR 391,072 and USD 8,100 – totaling MVR 515,812 - from at least 27 individuals who thought they were paying for umrah pilgrimage last year.

The police investigation uncovered that Mash’ar collected the payments despite not being authorized to take people on umrah pilgrimage in 2024. The group did not take the people on pilgrimage and nor did it return the money.

This money was instead deposited to Farish’s personal bank accounts, and the accounts of other companies including Tria Pvt. Ltd. and Halftone Pvt. Ltd. – both of which is registered to his name.

The PGO said it filed charges against Farish with the Criminal Court on Wednesday.

The charges are:

• Six counts of theft by deception under Section 212 of the Penal Code.
• One count of money laundering under Article 53 (a) of the Act on Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing.

Farish also faces more charges against him as authorities investigate him over bounced cheques.

The bounced cheques had been payments for the tour group’s Umrah pilgrims during Ramadan last year, and had led to some 50 pilgrims getting stranded in Saudi Arabia.

The incident was reported to the police on April 13, 2024.

The tour group was reported to the police by the Islamic Ministry.