Former MD of Mocum denies allegations of corruption against Maumoon and brother Yamin

An official from the World Bank, sent to Singapore by the Presidential Commission established to investigate into alleged corruption of the former government through a company incorporated in Singapore, by the name of Mocum Ltd., attested that there was no illegal or improper dealings in the transactions undertaken by Mocum, says Ahmed Muneez, former Managing Director of Mocum.

Leaders of the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and its government have constantly accused former President Maumoon Abdul Qayyoom and his brother Yamin Abdul Qayyoom, who was then running the State Trading Organization (STO), of establishing Mocum through STO and conducting 800 million USD worth of illegal oil trade for personal gains. After the MDP Alliance came to power in 2008, President Nasheed has established the Presidential Commission to investigate corruption in the former government, and the Commission has since conducted investigations into this case.

The case is now being enquired into by the Committee on National Security at the People’s Majlis, which summoned former MD of Mocum today.

Muneez said that the World Bank official sent by the Presidential Commission to look into the documents of Mocum spent one month there to do his work, and stated based on his findings that there had been nothing wrong in the transactions conducted by Mocum.

Muneez said that the company undertook oil trade in Burma worth USD 195 million, and that it had conducted only USD 300 million worth of oil trade in all, and that the transactions in Burma produced no profits for the company. He went onto say that there is “no truth whatsoever in the claims about an USD 800 million dollar illegal trade”.

Muneez also said that as soon as Mocum was incorporated, its dissolution was intended, though he did not state the reason for that. He said that a company could be wound up in Singapore only after six months of its incorporation, and Mocum took only that much time for dissolution, and that there had been no Board meetings of the company at any time.