President voices confidence in ability to recover state assets lost to corruption

President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu has voiced confidence in the ability of authorities to recover state assets lost to corruption.

In an appearance on an episode of the 'Nation Chat' podcast series, which aired on Public Service Media (PSM) on Wednesday night, President Muizzu said his administration is working to recover stolen public funds with full confidence in the success of the initiative.

He believes the stolen public funds can be recovered if the Parliament, the Anti-Corruption Commission, the courts and all state institutions work together.

He said that his administration was close to finalizing an asset recovery bill, which he believes will be instrumental in aiding the efforts.

He said that the country will also need to amend additional laws in order to ensure the successful implementation of the new provisions.

He believes the legislative changes will strengthen the ability of state institutions to fight corruption.

“I believe that through collaborative efforts, especially from the ACC and the judiciary, we will be able to produce results in recovering a large portion of, or even all of the state assets, the people’s money, the people’s assets, the loss incurred,” he said.

President Muizzu said that while this was “huge and hard work”, there was a pressing need to provide a satisfactory resolution to corruption cases such as the MMPRC graft and money laundering scandal.

He said that there was also a need to deter such acts of corruption in the future.

The MMPRC corruption scandal, which took place in former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom’s administration, resulted in the loss of millions of dollars from the sale of lagoons and islands for tourism projects.

Back in 2025, the ACC said it had instruction state institutions to recover over MVR 120 million in funds linked to the scandal.

The trial into the scandal resulted in convictions against former Vice President and Tourism Minister Ahmed Adeeb Abdul Ghafoor and former managing director of MMPRC Abdulla Ziyath.

However, both Adeeb and Ziyath had their sentences commuted in 2023 by then-President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih in the very last days of his administration, allowing them to walk free.

The case also produced convictions against Yameen, which were later overturned by the Supreme Court.