Police have entered the Football Association of Maldives (FAM) office in the Galolhu national stadium with a court order.
The FAM office was raided to gather evidence in a case under investigation by police, the court order stated.
According to the search warrant, the items that police wanted to find from the Galolhu stadium include payment receipts, information storage devices such as hard disks, bank statements, documents related to the case and records of transactions conducted with banks, companies and individuals.
The search of the FAM office came after the Criminal Court held FAM President Bassam Adeel Jaleel's passport on May 20.
The state has raised charges against Bassam over the alleged misappropriation of funds sent by world football's governing body FIFA.
Bassam was charged with embezzlement and money laundering.
According to the embezzlement charge, dollars from FAM’s Bank of Ceylon account were transferred to Bassam’s personal account at the Bank of Maldives with documents submitted to list the transaction as a currency exchange.
However, there was no record of FAM receiving the funds back. The transaction was therefore concluded to have been embezzlement of FAM’s funds, the Prosecutor General’s (PG) office said.
Out of the USD 9,999 transferred to Bassam’s account, USD 1,910 was deposited to another person’s account and later transferred to the account of the Glacier Investment company owned by Bassam and his wife Maureen. These funds were then used for the company’s expenses, the PG office said in a statement released on Monday last week.
The funds were also used to pay rent for Bassam’s residence at the Rehendhi flats, according to the charges. The prosecution asked the court to recover USD 10,000 from Bassam to the state. The charges carry a jail sentence between five to 15 years along with a fine between USD 10,000 and USD 1 million.
Further cases of alleged corruption involving Bassam are under investigation by police.
