Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has stated that banks had initially refused to give them information for their investigation on the MMPRC embezzlement case.

MVR 1.3 billion was embezzled from state marketing firm MMPRC during the previous administration of President Abdulla Yameen.

At a meeting with the parliament committee on Wednesday, ACC Vice President Muavviz Rasheed said the Maldives Monetary Authority had to compel the banks to cooperate with the ACC.

Muavviz said that ACC faced many obstructions in its investigation of MMPRC and that the banks and other state institutions were initially uncooperative. He added that around 73 state institutions had resisted giving information for their investigation and that they found it difficult to trace the laundered money, since most of it were transferred using using physical cash.

ACC’s investigative report has been criticised for being incomplete.