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Friday 19 Apr 2024
LOCAL EDITION
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LOCAL EDITION
Ahmed Moosa Mohamed, Managing Director of SeaLife Global. (Photo/Interpol)
SeaLife Global’s managing director Ahmed Moosa Mohamed (Ammaty) – pressed with multiple charges for defrauding over 200 tenants out of millions in booking fees for a proposed apartment complex in suburban Hulhumale’ – has been released on bail after the court accepted his sisters as surety.
SeaLife Global’s managing director Ahmed Moosa Mohamed (Ammaty) – pressed with multiple charges for defrauding over 200 tenants out of millions in booking fees for a proposed apartment complex in suburban Hulhumale’ – has been released on bail after the court accepted his sisters as surety.
The two people who Ammaty proposed as surety – his younger sister Afeefa Moosa and elder sister Mariyam Naeema – were summoned to the Criminal Court hearing on Wednesday.
They signed the bail surety agreement, agreeing to bear responsibility if Ammaty violates bail.
Ammaty was released under the condition that he cannot leave Male’ City unless with express permission from the court, and that he must cooperate with the court and attend all his hearings.
The judge said the prosecution reserves the right to appeal the decision to grant bail.
Ammaty has been pressed with 42 charges of embezzlement in connection to the Sealife scam. The charges against him were formally read against him by the prosecution over the course of two hearings at the court last week.
Ammaty’s attorney, former Prosecutor General Muhthaz Muhsin entered a plea of ‘not guilty’ on behalf of his client as each charge was read separately.
SeaLife announced its 3,000-apartment housing project, the SeaLife Complex in Hulhumale’, back in 2015.
280 tenants paid a booking fee of MVR 50,000 (some more than MVR 50,000). But the SeaLife Complex was never built and the tenants never reimbursed for their down payments.
The cumulative total of the booking fees collected by SeaLife is estimated to be upwards of MVR 14 million.
Ammaty, who had an Interpol red notice out for his capture since 2019, was arrested in neighboring Sri Lanka in February.
He was extradited to Maldives in March, and charged with 42 counts of embezzlement in May, which could see him behind bars for 65 years.. He had been in police custody until the Criminal Court ordered his release in June, declaring the case does not require his detention.
The decision was overturned by the High Court following an appeal by the Prosecutor General’s Office, citing Ammaty may influence witnesses and is deemed an extreme flight risk.
