Maldives seeks foreign aid to find cash linked to ousted leader

COLOMBO AFP Feb 8, 2019- The Maldives government is seeking international help to find millions of dollars allegedly siphoned off by former president Abdulla Yameen who faces embezzlement and money laundering charges, officials said Friday.   

Maldivian diplomats said authorities in the Indian Ocean archipelago were in talks with foreign experts as part of a police investigation against the leader who lost power last September.   

 “Police have now completed their investigations. The Prosecutor General can now formally charge the former president,” Aslam Shakir, spokesman for the Maldives embassy in Colombo, told AFP.   

He said police investigations had found evidence linking Yameen and his justice minister Azima Shakoor to the theft of state funds and money laundering.   
In December, courts in the tourist paradise froze some $6.5 million in accounts allegedly linked to Yameen who suffered a shock defeat to Mohamed Ibrahim Solih in elections in September.   Shakir said millions of dollars could be stashed abroad and talks were underway with foreign entities to repatriate any cash found. He did not name the countries involved.