Deputy Speaker Nazim “mastermind” of scam to defraud atolls ministry: state prosecutors

Deputy Speaker of Parliament Ahmed Nazim was the “mastermind” of a scam to defraud the now-defunct Ministry of Atolls Development, state prosecutors told the High Court today.

Attorneys from the Prosecutor General (PG’s) Office claimed at today’s appeal hearing that Namira Engineering Private Limited – of which Nazim was a former board director – had won bids from the atolls ministry with fraudulent documents and paper companies.

The prosecutors argued that the MP for Meemu Atoll Dhiggaru, as a board director, was ultimately responsible for any corrupt dealings involving the company.

Contacted by Minivan News for comment today, Deputy Speaker Ahmed Nazim said he was “too busy to comment on the matter”.

In February 2012, the Criminal Court dismissed four corruption charges against Nazim. The decisions came just days after the controversial transfer of power on February 7 that brought President Dr Mohamed Waheed to office, with the court ruling that Nazim’s “acts were not enough to criminalise him.”

The Prosecutor General’s Office (PG) however appealed the rulings at the High Court in June 2012.

The appeal

During the first hearing of the appeal today – concerning Nazim’s Namira Engineering Private Limited winning a bid to provide 15,000 national flags – state prosecutors accused the defendant of setting up paper companies for the scam.

The bogus businesses were then used to win bids for projects worth several hundred thousand dollars, the state prosecutors argued.

State Prosecutor Abdulla Raabiu contended that board directors of a company should be liable for criminal transactions carried out in the name of a company under the Companies Act of Maldives.

Raabiu also asserted that Nazim was the “mastermind” behind the fraud and had fully benefited from the deal.

Highlighting apparent lapses during the previous trial against Nazim, Raabiu alleged that the Criminal Court had refused to hear witnesses produced by the state, referring instead to previous statements they had given to the police.

Furthermore, he stated that the court had dismissed the state’s witnesses as suspects of the same crime.

Raabiu argued that it was a familiar practice for the prosecution to withhold charges against suspects with lesser degrees of criminal liability in order to ensure successful prosecution of a prime suspect in a criminal case.

The prosecution said it believed the prime suspect would have a greater degree of criminal liability in the same case.

The state prosecutor also alleged that the case had been decided based solely on Nazim’s word and that the court had refused to give the opportunity to the state to prove its case against the defendant.

Requesting an order for a retrial, Raabiu claimed that the case was concluded in violation of the constitutional stipulation demanding equity in hearing both sides of a case.

The defence

Responding to the allegations by the state, Nazim’s defence counsel Aishath Shizleen contended that it should not be Nazim, but those involved in drafting the bid documents that should be held liable.

Instead of prosecuting the real wrong-doers, she argued, the state had produced them as witnesses against Nazim even when the investigation had clearly found the witnesses had themselves produced the fake documents.

Furthermore, Nazim’s lawyer argued that a witness needed to have certain standards as per a Supreme Court ruling, which had explicitly stated that evidence given by a witness who had even the slightest involvement in a crime could not be accepted to the court.

The lawyer said that the stipulation was also prescribed in the Quran.

This, she said, was the reason for which the Criminal Court had decided to reject the witnesses produced by the state. Nazim’s defense counsel requested the High Court to declare that the decision reached by the Criminal Court was valid and that no retrial was required.

Scam allegations

Along with Deputy Speaker Nazim, MP Ahmed “Redwave” Saleem (then-finance director at the ministry) and Abdulla Hameed, former Atolls Minister and half brother of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, were charged in late 2009 on multiple counts of conspiracy to defraud the Atolls Ministry.

The scam – first flagged in an audit report released in early 2009 – involved paper companies allegedly set up by the defendants to win bids for projects worth several hundred thousand dollars, including the fraudulent purchase of harbour lights, national flags and mosque sound systems.

According to the report, the documents of Malegam Tailors, the company which won the bid, showed that it shared the same phone number as Namira. Fast Tailors, another company that applied, also shared a different phone number registered under Namira.

The other company Needlework Tailors, which submitted the bid had an employee of Namira sign the documents under the title of general manager, while the fourth company named ‘Seaview Maldives Private Maldives’ did not have any record of its existence, according to the report.

However, the auditors had noted that the Seaview bid documents had an exact date error also found on Fast Tailors documents.  According to the auditors, the error was sufficient to prove the same party had prepared both company’s bids.

The prosecution began in late 2009, after police uncovered evidence that implicated Hameed, Saleem and Nazim in a number of fraudulent transactions.

At a press conference in August 2009, police exhibited numerous quotations, agreements, tender documents, receipts, bank statements and forged cheques showing that Nazim received over US$400,000 in the scam.

A hard disk seized during a raid of Nazim’s office in May 2009 allegedly contained copies of forged documents and bogus letterheads. Police alleged that money was channeled through the scam to Nazim, who then laundered cash through Namira Engineering and unregistered companies.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

9 thoughts on “Deputy Speaker Nazim “mastermind” of scam to defraud atolls ministry: state prosecutors”

  1. When the judicial system defends a suspect more than his own lawyer does... what else is there to comment about this article.

    Likes(0)Dislikes(0)
  2. No! No! Not simply true! janiya Nazim, Rekko Moosa, Mariya and Jabir are the most pious people in the Madives. They very good. Never took public money, nor organized gang fighters, never drank alcohol. They never bought judges. They never blacked mailed politicians using sex videos. They are the most pious citizens. They are loved by president Nasheed and Gayoom.

    Likes(0)Dislikes(0)
  3. The same Criminal Court's Chief Judge Abdulla Mohamed who set Nazim free also did set a murderer free where the criminal killed another person just within 48hrs of release.

    This Chief Judge also did order some under aged (victims to a homosexual) to expose and 'play'the scene in front of the Judge where only the Judge and a court official and the prosecuting official who has the same tendencies towards such filth were the only ppl present. THE COURTS ARE NOT OPEN FOR THE PUBLIC IN THE MALDIVES! This is ANOTHER PROBLEM. NO EVEN THE PRESS!

    AND this is the same Judge who President Nasheed ordered the military to be summoned to the police since this CORRUPT & SICK man became a FUGITIVE to the police by NOT attending to the police station when he was summoned by them. Instead he was planning to override the police summon by trying to seek a court order through the GAYoom brothers. Gays for gays, eh? OBSTRUCT OF JUSTICE by deliberately setting the criminals who're working for GAYoom bros is the only WORK this SICK man does in his court room. And of course, his sick little 'other' things as well. Most Maldivians wont be that surprised of this because all of them know that a good majority of the present Judges are GAYoom bros cronies and most were selected by GAYoom's half bro and former Atolls Minister Abdulla Hameed (also another FUGITIVE of the case mentioned in this article) who has a reputation of selecting 'the young boys' for the 'jobs'for GAYoom's regime.

    Likes(0)Dislikes(0)
  4. The earth is round and rotates around the sun.

    This news is as old and as well known as the above.

    Likes(0)Dislikes(0)
  5. Andreas,

    The earth is spherical, not round and revolves around the sun. Rotates on its own axis.

    Perhaps there is more to the "news" than what you may have assumed to have understood?

    Couldn't resist! 😉

    Likes(0)Dislikes(0)
  6. Any one need further evidence that Maldives is lawless wild Wild West ?

    Likes(0)Dislikes(0)
  7. Is there anyone in the country who DOES NOT know that Jangiyaa is THE mastermind of all scams that are going around? I guess the answer is that the ONLY people who do not that are the judges that he has the ability to blackmail!

    Likes(0)Dislikes(0)
  8. President Nasheed was Absolutely right. The Judicial System of this country has failed. I dont wanna say anything more than this. These corrupt judges like Abdulla, High Court Judge Shareef and a few others need's to be in prison for treason against the Nation.
    Best of Luck Maldivies. Maldives is indeed headed towards been labeled as the bedrock of 'Everything bad and deplorable'in this indian ocean.

    Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

Comments are closed.