Ishan appointed FIU’s newest chief

Mohamed Ishan has been appointed the newest chief of Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA)’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).

The FIU serves as the country’s central agency for collecting, analyzing, and sharing information related to money laundering, terrorism financing, and proceeds of crime. Its primary role is to receive financial transaction reports from reporting institutions, examine them, and, when necessary, provide actionable financial intelligence to law enforcement and regulatory authorities. 

Prior to this, Ishan had been serving as the Head of Finance at the central bank. According to MMA, he was selected for this role following an internal recruitment process open to the central bank’s staff, which included comprehensive interviews of the candidates who applied for the top FIU post.

FIU was most recently headed by Ismail Sajid, who was dismissed from the post over sexual harassment. He has challenged his dismissal at court.

Sajid, who was appointed to the post in late August last year, was dismissed on January 29 after a month-long suspension.

He as appointed to the position in late August, shortly after a confidential FIU report examining transactions linked to PNC parliamentary group’s senior deputy leader Ibrahim Shujau (Shuja) was leaked on social media which outlined substantial deposits allegedly made to Shujau through the Army Welfare Cooperative (CIVEC).

Following Sajid’s appointment, long-serving FIU chief Abdulla Ashraf was reassigned as Head of Risk and Compliance. Ashraf, a lawyer with significant financial intelligence experience, had been removed from his FIU leadership role the same weekend the report was leaked.

The newly appointed head of the FIU, Ishan, is a highly qualified and experienced Chartered Accountant. He is an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) in the United Kingdom and an Affiliate Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of the Maldives.

Since joining the MMA in 2014, Ishan has held several senior roles within the institution. Among these positions, he served as Head of the Corporate Accounts Section and Head of the Financial Controls Division. In these roles, he was responsible for overseeing key aspects of financial management and strengthening the authority’s internal governance and control frameworks.