The Bank of Maldives (BML) was party to an escrow agreement signed between the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and former President Abdulla Yameen, the ACC's lawyer told the High Court today.
Yameen sued the ACC and BML at the Civil Court over the failure to deposit USD 1 million to his account after the escrow agreement expired. But the bank appealed the Civil Court's decision to proceed to trial with the BML as a party to the lawsuit.
At a previous High Court hearing, BML denied opening an escrow account. The account in question was a current account under the ACC's name with full control of the commission. The funds could only be released upon instruction by the ACC, the bank's lawyer said.
At today's hearing, ACC lawyer Aishath Sunainath Abdulla said that the agreement clearly stated that it was an "escrow account agreement." The term was also used clearly in letters sent to the bank from the ACC and the government, the lawyer noted.
The bank was also among the parties with whom originals of the agreement were shared after three copies were made, the lawyer said. The other originals belonged to Yameen and the ACC, she said.
Despite the bank's insistence that a tripartite agreement was required to open an escrow account, the ACC lawyer said that an account could be opened with the BML's involvement under an agreement made between two parties if the law does not stipulate otherwise.
The ACC could not complete its arguments during the time alloted for today's hearing. Before the hearing concluded, BML questioned whether the funds should be released to Yameen. But the panel of judges hearing the appeal decided that the question should be answered after the ACC completes presenting oral arguments.
In the lawsuit filed on Yameen's behalf, the Civil Court was asked to rule that the bank had withheld the funds in breach of the escrow agreement. In addition to ordering the release of the funds, the court was also asked to award equitable compensation in the amount that Yameen was estimated to have earned by keeping the funds in an investment account.
The agreement to keep USD 1 million in the escrow account was made during Yameen's government on June 10, 2018. The funds had been transferred from an investment account opened under Yameen's name at the Islamic Bank. Due to suspicions that the money was part of funds stolen from Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC), it was to be kept until the source of the funds could be established.
During the previous presidential term, Yameen was handed an 11-year prison sentence over alleged bribery in the lease of Vaavu Aarah as part of the MMPRC corruption scandal. The High Court later ordered a retrial at the Criminal Court. A previous five-year prison sentence handed to Yameen had also been overturned by the Supreme Court.
Yameen was also charged over alleged corruption in the lease of Raa Fuggiri island. The trial is ongoing at the lower court. But a hearing has not been held recently despite the allocation of a building in Hulhumale' to resolve space constraints faced by the Criminal Court.
