Shamaan was abruptly sacked on March 20 and arrested a day later along with four immigration officers suspected of involvement in a migrant worker extortion scheme. 

Three immigration officers raided an expatriate residence in Malé on the night of March 12 and detained a migrant worker with MVR 530,000 (US$ 34,370).

According to the findings of the police investigation disclosed on March 29, the operation targeting the foreign workers had been conducted contrary to normal procedures and without the necessary documentation.

The three immigration officers worked in the controller general’s bureau and the planning and media section. Conducting such operations was not part of their job responsibilities.  But they searched the house and held seven migrant workers, the police said.

Later that night, a specialised immigration team re-processed the scene, sealed the belongings of the detained foreigners, and transported them to the immigration detention centre.

“The investigation has found that the seven foreign workers arrested during this operation had documentation in accordance with regulations,” the police revealed. 

In the early hours of March 13, the foreigner detained with the large amount of cash was taken to the immigration office and “released from immigration custody under the direction of the former controller general of immigration, who instructed that this matter be treated as ‘urgent.’” 

The Maldivian sponsor who took responsibility for the released foreign national was found to be a family member of one of the Immigration employees arrested in connection with the case. 

Prior to his release, the money taken from the foreigner was returned to him in a bag. He then left the immigration office on a motorcycle with the sponsor and got into an immigration vehicle on Shaheed Ali Hingun with one of the suspected immigration officers, who drove the foreign worker back to his residence after "settling certain matters."

One of the immigration officers then “took the bag of money from the Immigration vehicle, and went to the house of former controller general Mohamed Shamaan Waheed,” the police said. 

“While CCTV footage showed that the bag contained a large amount of money when he entered the house, it was noted that the bag appeared to be crumpled in his fist when he left.”

The police raided Shamaan’s apartment with a court warrant and seized MVR 257,475 and US$ 10,000 in cash “as well as various currencies from other countries and electronic equipment.”