Abdulla Ziyaath, the state-operated Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation’s former managing director, is guilty of cheque frauds of up to MVR 718.6 million, prosecutors have alleged.

These cheques are ones Ziyaath had issued for 25 islands and five lagoons that the MMPRC had leased for a period of 50 years during his tenure.

Prosecutors’ allegations come as 30 different charges, 15 of which have gone through the interim stages of trial.

The charges claim that Ziyaath had acquired cheques for the aforementioned acquisitions, which he had not declared or deposited with the MMPRC.

Ziyaath had denied the charges and said that all cheques had been haded over to the Tourism Ministry, and given ‘proof of payment’ to then Minister Ahmed Adeeb.

While Adeeb is currently serving a 33-year jail term and is also accused of being involved in a corruption scandal involving the MMPRC, Ziyaath said that his decision to hand over the cheques to Adeeb had not been malicious.

The corruption case against Ziyaath is criticized for the fact that the original charges were based off of Maldives’ older penal code, which had been in use from 1968 until it was dissolved in 2015.