Former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom has confessed to committing theft and doing so by himself.
The state has filed bribery and money laundering charges against Yameen in the MMPRC case. It is alleged that he took bribes and laundered money through MMPRC in leasing R. Fuggiri. The hearings of this case are currently ongoing in the Criminal Court.
Previously, he has also been sentenced in similar cases. Among them, in 2022, the Criminal Court sentenced Yameen to 11 years in prison for alleged embezzlement in leasing Aarah island. Yameen was later released in April 2024.
Before that, Yameen was sentenced to five years in prison for laundering one million dollars in the Ga. Vodamula case. Although this sentence, passed by the Criminal Court in December 2019, was upheld by the High Court, the Supreme Court later annulled it, leading to Yameen’s release in 2021, two years later.
Yameen spoke about this theft during a PNF rally at Artificial Beach, in the context of discussing the ventilator corruption scandal during former President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s government during the COVID-19 period. He stated that the amount involved was over a million dollars. Yameen also said that while on a ventilator, he heard about a major theft.
“The project was given to some Raju in Dubai, some Raju was given it, Raju took 15%, after taking it Raju disappeared, it was given to a company, this is done without due diligence, what I’m trying to say is that this was done intentionally to steal, intentionally to steal, otherwise they wouldn’t give these things to just anyone,” Yameen said.
Yameen said that the 15%, which amounts to $810,000, is now in a Bank of Ceylon account in Ceylon belonging to a child of some senior official.
“I won’t lie to the people, find out the truth, it’s in the name of some official’s child,” he said.
Then he spoke about his own theft.
Yameen said that he committed the theft and that the money obtained through theft was with him.
“If it’s me, I did all the theft, but I don’t keep the money I stole and the money I have in my wife’s and children’s names because I’m not brave enough to face it, that’s such cowardice,” Yameen said.
Yameen said that this is not a masculine trait, and that “that poor person” would be investigated.
“If my money is in my son Zain’s name, would Zain know how to be accountable? But this shows how cowardly they are, it’s in some leader’s child’s name in a Bank of Ceylon account in Ceylon,” he said.
From this story, Yameen then spoke about former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb. He said that someone is paying the rent for Adeeb’s apartment in Dubai.
“It’s a senior person in the Maldives, operating from a Dubai account account, so why is that person taking care of Adeeb?” Yameen asked. He also questioned why someone else’s checkbook is being used to cover Adeeb’s luxurious living expenses and apartment rent.
