A Bangladeshi national has been arrested, investigated, and referred to the Prosecutor General’s Office for prosecution on charges of illegally bringing foreigners into the country in collaboration with Immigration staff, obtaining money through criminal activities, and money laundering. Police investigations have revealed that several million rufiyaa have been circulated through bank accounts created under the name of 34-year-old Shahadat Hussain.
Following intelligence received by the police about illegal business operations bringing foreigners into the country, obtaining money through criminal activities, and money laundering, the 34-year-old Bangladeshi national Shahadat Hussain was arrested and investigated. Shahadat Hussain, who was arrested under a court order and investigated, has been living in the Maldives since 2014. He has worked in the Maldives under four work permits, and since 2019, he has opened three Maldivian rufiyaa accounts and three US dollar accounts at the Bank of Maldives under his name. Police say his work permit expired in July of last year.
Some of the findings from the police investigation show that although his most recent employment document listed him as an office worker, his salary was stated as 3000 dollars. Police say this information was also entered in the same way in the Expat system. The police investigation has revealed that he was extensively involved in the business of bringing foreigners into the country. He was living in a two-bedroom apartment in Male’ for 18,000 rufiyaa, and police have found logos of companies, company registrations, foreigners’ passports, and some Maldivians’ eFaas IDs from his phone and laptop.
“The discovery of these items indicates that Shahadat Hussain is someone who brings foreigners into the country on a large scale and derives financial benefits from it. Based on the information found on his phone and laptop, there were 153 account IDs with passwords for individuals, 7 foreign account IDs with passwords, 283 IDs with passwords for private limited companies, 126 individual names, and 5 IDs under partnership names,” said Chief Inspector of Police Ahmed Azmath Abdullah.
Police said that while numerous documents and IDs were found in his possession, these are not believed to be items he created himself. They also believe that some institutions and private individuals are involved in this and are receiving financial benefits. “It is believed that in Shahadat Hussain’s operation, some employees of Maldives Immigration and many ordinary Maldivians work with Shahadat Hussain to obtain company quotas, bring in foreigners, release them into Male’ without providing employment, and derive financial benefits. Additionally, it has been found that he sends fraudulent work permit documents via phone and has money deposited into accounts opened in Bangladesh,” said Chief Inspector of Police Ahmed Azmath Abdullah.
Police say that the involvement of Maldivian and Immigration staff in this case is evident from the documents and chat logs found on his phone, and this is being investigated as a separate case. In Shahadat’s accounts, who was running an extensive business of bringing foreigners, 8 million rufiyaa has been circulated. Police investigations have also revealed that he paid more than a million rufiyaa to the Expat system from his personal account. Police say they are continuing to investigate this case further.”
