FAM chief 'prime suspect' in graft allegations, PG says

Prosecutor General (PG) Hussain Shameem said on Thursday that one of the main accused in the Football Association of Maldives (FAM) corruption case is its president Bassam Adil Jaleel.

Police raided the FAM headquarters and recovered items related to the case late last month following allegations of misuse of foreign donations. The investigation is being conducted on the orders of the PG. 

At a press conference at the prosecutor general's office, Shameem said the allegations are against the people in charge of running the FAM and the main accusation is directed against FAM President Bassam.

Shameem said the police allege that the money sent by FIFA to the FAM is used for other purposes in violation of Maldivian laws and regulations.

“There are rules in Maldives about the use of funds received from various sources. There are such rules existing,” he said.

Shameem said FIFA's money is not sent for the FAM but for the people of Maldives.

"A money given for the people has been entrusted to certain people. If it is used in violation of the laws and regulations in Maldives, that is the issue we are looking into," he said.

Shameem said the money had circulated in various ways.

"Now most of the transactions are done using cards. So some kind of [transactions] are there to see," he said.

Among them, Shameem said:

"We know where they went, from which hotel to which mall, which shop they went to, what they bought. All these transactions are stored in another system," Shameem said.

Shameem added that there were issues that needed to be investigated further in the case of FAM and that some of the documents were kept "weirdly, unlike people normally do".

“So there will be some difficulties in finding them and putting them together,” he said.

Information on financial crimes will take time and more information is expected in the next few days, he said.

He said the allegations are against various people in FAM positions and the FAM members will decide whether to keep them in their positions.

"Things like impounding passports, the police are going ahead with it," he said.

A lot of information has already been received in the case and it is expected that enough evidence will be obtained within the next week or two, he said.

“The MMA is also providing information and the police are conducting an investigation,” he said.