Police have accused the former government’s Home Minister Hassan Afeef and a fellow shareholder of Madoogali Resort of implementing a policy halting service charge payments to staff, as required by the Employment Act.
In a statement police said company involved was Blue Lagoon Investment Private Limited, and identified the second shareholder as Moosa Hassan of Mathidhoo in the Maafaanu ward of Male.
Police alleged that Blue Lagoon Investment Private Limited had taken a 10 percent service charge from the tourists from November 2011 to January 2013, but failed to account for this in documentation.
Police claimed their investigation had revealed that the shareholders had defrauded 29 percent of the money they took as service charge.
According to police, the two shareholders also mortgaged the resort with a bank without consulting with the company’s third shareholder, against the regulations of the tourism ministry.
Police alleged the money from the bank was then used to pay the rent of Raafushi Island in Noonu Atoll, an uninhabited island being developed into a resort by a company shared by the two shareholders, Afeef and Moosa.
Speaking to Minivan News, Hassan Afeef alleged Police Commissioner Abdulla Riyaz had been bribed and told Minivan News to call Riyaz and “ask him more about it”.
Afeef then referred Minivan News to his lawyers as the case was going to be taken up in court.
Mauroof Zakir Hussein of the Tourism Employment Association of the Maldives (TEAM) said the organisation had not received any complaints from staff at the resort concerning service charge payments.
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