ACC files case against former STO MD Mohamed Manik

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has filed a case against former Managing Director of the State Trading Organisation (STO), Mohamed Hussein Manik, alleging corruption in a US$1.3 million deal with Yacht Tours Maldives (YTM).

Haveeru reported the commission as stating it had filed the case with the Prosecutor General as the money may have been used to purchase shares of Emerald Resort Private Limited to buy Olhuveli Resort.

Manik is currently the CEO of the Pension Administration Office, and was previously Maldives Ambassador to the US.

Yacht Tours is owned by Abdulla Jabir, a former DRP member who joined the MDP following the Presidential election.

Last year the Maldives Tourism Development Corporation paid US$3.8 million to Yacht Tours after a long-running legal dispute over Herathera Island Resort.

MTDC claimed that YTM had been running Herathera Island Resort without paying rent and took the company to court. In May 2009 the court ordered YTM to pay US$8 million in outstanding rent to MTDC, however YTM successfully claimed that MTDC had failed to fulfil a contractual obligation to build a channel between Herethere Resort and Hulhudhoo, an adjoining inhabited island.