Sealife Global scam: cases of two victims filed at Civil Court

A case regarding Sealife Global’s alleged housing scam has been filed at the Civil Court.

Sealife Global, tasked with developing 3,000 housing units, is accused of scamming a number of people, after taking the initial payment for the apartments allocated within the first phase.

Attorney Fathimath Badhoora, who filed the case at court, said that cases of two individuals were filed at the Civil Court on Monday and added that they are looking to file 20 more.

In addition to Badhoora, former state counsel at the Attorney General’s Office, Mariyam Shunana, is working to file similar cases at the court. She is representing 146 of the victims, and had filed cases at the Maldives Police Service and the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on Monday.

The five-year project between the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) and Sealife Global was announced back in 2014; it is a joint venture between the company and two Dubai firms.

While Sealife Global was tasked with developing 3,000 housing units and offices, they had announced several dates on when the it will be completed. However, most of the project remains incomplete.

Around 300 people had booked to purchase properties from the apartments allocated within the first phase, with an initial payment of MVR 50,000. The payment was made under the condition that it ‘would be refundable at any time’.

While reports indicate that nearly 300 individuals had made bookings, Sealife Global’s Managing Director Ahmed Moosa Mohamed had, back in September, claimed that 180 had done so.

Noting that they had already refunded most of them, he said that remaining were only 87 individuals.

However, RaajjeMV was unable to obtain an update on the matter from the managing director due to failure to respond to calls.