Large financial transactions occurred during former President Mohamed Nasheed and former Defence Minister Mohamed Nazim’s arrests and the May Day protest, says Athif Shakoor, former head of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).

He said this in his meeting with the parliament’s finance committee on Wednesday, which was held for him to respond to accusations regarding the MMPRC embezzlement case.

Speaking at the committee meeting, Athif said that they closely investigated the suspicious transactions after receiving the reports, since the increase in volume of transactions coincided with the political turmoil.

He said that he had repeatedly notified, Azima Adam, then governor of Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA), of the transactions and that, afterwards, changes were made to the Standard Operations Procedure and procedures upon receiving Suspicious Transaction Reports.