Money laundering: police discover $400,000 in washing machine

Police have seized US$398,500 in forged dollars after raiding Mahchangolhi Fortune at 6:00pm yesterday.

Chief Inspector of police Mohamed Jamsheed said Ibrahim Khaleel of Lhaimagu in Shaviyani Atoll was arrested in connection with the case.

Jamsheed discovered hidden inside a washing machine in the rented apartment.

”We are checking to see whether this money has been circulated anywhere,” he said.

He noted that the forged bills had two serial numbers repeated on all the notes.

Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Ahmed Inaz said the printing of forged dollar notes did not harm the country’s economic condition “as the central bank and other banks will not accept any form of money without verifying it.”

Inaz said the people who used the black market would be more concerned about the printing of forged notes.

Such incidents of forgery were not being sparked by the current dollar shortage, he explained.

”Thieves will steal any time,” he said, adding that ”the country’s economic condition is now getting better.”

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7 thoughts on “Money laundering: police discover $400,000 in washing machine”

  1. Who is this Deputy Minister Inaz... I am pretty amazed by his comments... Who put him there....

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  2. All the banks in Maldives currently have mechanisms to ensure forged Dollar notes are not put into circulation or used in foreign exchanges. And forgery has been going on in Maldives unchecked for years! True, most of what we come into contact with are Rufiyya, but its not unconceivable that they will expand into dollars as well.

    Deputy Minister Ahmed Inaz is a bright and capable young man. Not only does he have a Masters in Economics, he has also revolutionized his department in the Ministry of Economic Development.

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  3. ok inaz i'll leave this on your side, cause there are judges in criminal court who thinks it's ok to print US dollars saying that we don't have any law that say can't print forge US dollars ..
    i ask that judge is there any law which says we cannot urinate on the road .. so that means we can do that too , .. and for you inaz deputy .. is gang violence ok, is killing ok, is drug dealing ok, is gang robbery ok ... .

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  4. Actually the forgery of dollars is being sparked by the current economic crisis because the common person who needs dollars for personal use or for business use, is forced to turn to the black market when the formal institutions who should be selling dollars, like the Banks are not able to meet that demand for dollars!! So lets face reality, Deputy Minister Inaz and admit that the dollar shortage is a huge issue and that something should have been done about it by now!!! This is no time to defend your political Party....and please stop making the same mistake the previous Government did, in thinking that we are stupid enough to just believe whatever a government official says!!!

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  5. Do we now have a law against holding foreign counterfeit money?

    It seems last time the judge released someone arrested on similar charge due to lack of such a law!

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  6. Firstly, Yes, the economic contribution does contribute to it. But, it did NOT "spark" the current crisis. It was always there.

    Secondly, No we don't have that legislation. If the Majlis could stop squibbing for two seconds, then maybe they could pass legislation to actually make these kinds of activities illegal. Judges can only go so far as to interpret the laws. Not create them from thin air.

    For once, the Judges may not be the ones to blame (unless of course they're just being nit-picky about which laws to apply and how to apply them). I do not understand why a forgery law applies only to local currency. This does not make sense to me.

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  7. Yes, I'm completely with Mariyam on this one! 🙂

    Stealing and other acts of theivery is not something irrational as the deputy minister seems to suggest. There are always reasons behind why people commit such acts.

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