STO transparent, current MD tells press

The head of the Maldives State Trading Organisation (STO) has claimed that the company could not currently be involved in operating any “clandestine” businesses as news reports published this week allege that previous management may have been involved in shipping fraud relating to about US$800m worth of state oil, Miadhu has reported.

STO Managing Director Shahid Ali told the paper that the organisation was run very transparently and that STO Singapore – the subsidiary company linked in a news report for India-based publication The Week to the fraud allegations – was the only enterprise it runs abroad.

The claims were made after The Week magazine published an article on Friday that claimed  top-level officials from the former administration, including Former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s half brother Abdulla Yameen, stood accused of personally profiting from selling subsidized oil on an international black market.  The allegations have been criticised as being “politically motivated”.

In discussing allegations of fraud that have been linked to previous company management, Shahid claimed that he was unable to provide any information on the Mocum Trading Company, which was alleged to have been set up by employees without the approval of the STO’s directors, as investigations were ongoing.

“Perhaps those employees were just used as rubber stamps to make that joint venture company. This will be only known after concluding the investigation,” he was reported as saying in Miadhu.  “The investigation is carried out by qualified parties. If the conclusion of the investigation necessitates any steps to be taken against any of the employees then it will be done so.”