US state department ‘ready to help’ recover missing Maldives state funds

A senior US state department official has said that the US government is prepared to help the new Maldives administration trace missing state funds and unravel government contract details.

The senior official said this in an interview with Los Angeles Times, which detailed China’s growing influence in the Maldives.

The Los Angeles Times article detailed how President Abdulla Yameen had allowed Maldives to become more reliant on China with minimal oversight and secret deals, by leasing an island near the capital to Beijing at a cut-rate price and inviting Chinese state-owned developers to build the Sinamale’ bridge and develop the main airport.

In 2014, a government audit also found that tens of millions of dollars in tourism revenue had been diverted to private accounts belonging to President Yameen’s vice president and others. Yameen denied wrongdoing and jailed the vice president. Auditor Niyaz Ibrahim lost his job and went into exile and has only recently returned to Maldives following Yameen’s defeat.

The news article cited president-elect Ibrahim Mohamed Solih saying that he would consider asking the FBI and other U.S. agencies to help trace missing funds and unravel contract details.

After his election win, Solih met the Chinese ambassador and learned that the Maldives owed the Chinese government not USD 1.5 billion, as had been widely estimated, but nearly USD 3 billion, which is more revenue than the Maldivian government raises in two years.

Solih has pledged to investigate whether President Abdulla Yameen and his associates profited from foreign deals.

Former President Mohamed Nasheed, a vocal critic of China, said that China’s purpose behind their development assistance is simply land grab.