Fake SeaLife payment slips allegedly used to secure Vinares apartments

The Housing Development Corporation (HDC) faced fresh corruption allegations on Saturday, with leaked documents appearing to show that multiple individuals were issued apartments from Vinares based on fake payment slips to SeaLife Global after it was decided to compensate victims of the SeaLife scam with the apartments.

The new documents shared with Sun by a credible source on Saturday come at the heels of a flurry of documents leaked on social media on Wednesday which appeared to show that multiple people were given land from Hulhumale’ under the ‘Binveriya’ scheme despite not being on the list of recipients released in 2023 during the MDP administration.

This includes HDC’s managing director Ibrahim Fazul Rasheed’s older brother Mohamed Fazeel Rasheed, the deputy managing director of Male’ Water and Sewerage Company (MWSC).

SeaLife is accused of defrauding over 200 tenants out of millions in booking fees for a proposed apartment complex in suburban Hulhumale’. Following a class action lawsuit filed in 2019, the HDC signed an out-of-court settlement worth MVR 45 million to refund the victims and also give them priority under state housing schemes.

In March, HDC’s managing director Fazul said the HDC sold some 60 apartments from Hiyaa towers and 130 from Vinares to some of the victims.

A credible source told Sun that people who were not victims of SeaLife were also given apartments at Vinares under this agreement using forged payment slips.

SeaLife announced its 3,000-apartment housing project, the SeaLife Complex in Hulhumale’, back in 2015.

280 tenants paid a booking fee of MVR 50,000 (some more than MVR 50,000). But the SeaLife Complex was never built.

Ahmed Moosa Mohamed (Ammaty), the managing director of SeaLife, has been pressed with 42 charges in connection to the scam. He faces 65 years in prison if the charges are proven against him in court.

He also had a travel ban against him.

But on Wednesday, the Criminal Court made the decision to lift the travel ban for 14 days, allowing him to leave the country.

The ealier leaked documents include a letter sent by HDC to the Housing Ministry dated July 24, seeking to verify the owner of Hulhumale’ lot number 20768 – after the corporation received applications from two different individuals – one of them Fazeel - who claimed to have received the plot under the ‘Binveriya’ scheme and asked for permission to build boundary walls around the property.

In response to the letter as well as other similar inquiries, the Housing Ministry wrote back on August 15 that the ‘Binveriya’ database does not show the individuals mentioned in HDC’s letters to have submitted applications under the scheme.

The Housing Ministry also said that Hulhumale’ lot number 20768 as well as another lot – 20821 – had not been awarded by the ministry to anyone. These two plots are claimed by a total of six people.

The final list of recipients of the ‘Binveriya’ scheme publicized in August 2023 lists Fazeel as an applicant, but also shows he was deemed ineligible as he had already been awarded housing under a different social housing scheme.

However, the leaked documents show Fazeel has a land registry for the plot, signed by Housing Ministry’s director general Ahmed Vishan Naseem and dated September 11, 2023.

The case is the subject of a criminal investigation by both the police and the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).

Fazeel, as well as the entire board of HDC, except for chairman Ahmed Nasif, and at least four top officials in the coorporation's management, were placed under suspension on Thursday. 

The authorities have also imposed a travel ban on at least 24 officials, including Fazul, Fazeel and Akram.

In a press conference held on Thursday night – as angry protestors surrounded the HDC headquarters in Hulhumale’ – Fazul denied the allegations against HDC, insisting that the corporation has no involvement in issuing plots under the ‘Binveriya’ scheme.

He also played off the implication of his brother as a mere “coincidence”, and insisted that the situation does not pose a conflict of interest.

Following mounting public pressure over the issue, Prosecutor General Abbas Shareef ordered the police and the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to conduct a comprehensive criminal investigation into the application, selection and issuance of housing under both the 'Binveriya' scheme and the 'Gedhoruveriya' scheme - another housing project launched during the previous administration.

9,003 plots of land were awarded under phase one of the ‘Binveriya’ housing scheme, from land reclaimed or being reclaimed from Hulhumale’, Gulhifalhu and Giraavarufalhi.

Meanwhile, over 15,000 people were guaranteed flats under the ‘Gedhoruveriya’ scheme. The MDP administration had released a list of the recipients of the first 4,000 units under the scheme in 2023 – but the handover of the flats was halted by the ACC following allegations of corruption in the selection process, before finally giving the Housing Ministry the go-ahead to proceed in February.

The Housing Ministry has been reviewing the list in the ten months since.

The corruption scandal comes amid mounting public frustration over the delay in handover of flats and land awarded under the two housing schemes.