Criminal Court of Maldives has sentenced the owner of Maleesha Hajj Group to eight years in prison for defrauding more than USD 521,000 from clients who made payments to perform Hajj pilgrimage.
The state prosecutor filed the case against Ismail Abdul Latheef for collecting payments from clients by deceit with the promise to take them to Mecca for Hajj. None of the clients were sent to Hajj or were paid back by Latheef, who soon escaped to Malaysia but was later apprehended in Sri Lanka in 2012 after police issued an Interpol red notice to find his whereabouts and arrest him.
The sentence stated Latheef was dealing in fraud and had confessed for the crime of dishonesty by not taking his clients for Hajj or issuing refunds. Such actions constitute deception, which had been proven by witness testimonies along with the legal documents presented in the case, and hence he was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Though Latheef was sued and tried under the old penal code, he was sentenced under the newly introduced penal code of justice which reduced his term of imprisonment. The government has made arrangements for the fraud victims to perform Hajj via Maldives Hajj Corporation Limited (MHCL).