Two former senior officials in the Maldives who were serving lengthy jail sentences for their part in a US$78 million corruption scandal that rocked the idyllic, archipelagic South Asian country are now free men.

The Maldives Criminal Court sentenced the archipelago state’s former president to 11 years foraccepting bribes andmoney laundering related to the leasing of an island for resort development, and ordered him to pay a US$5 million fine.

France confiscated on Thursday the superyacht of former Russian politician and current CEO of Russia’s state-owned oil enterprise Rosneft Igor Sechin, following a wave of EU sanctions against Russian officials and oligarchs.

A former deputy chief of staff for Russian leader Vladimir Putin, as well as a wealthy Russian businessman with reputed organized crime ties, were secretly involved in the illegal leasing of a lagoon for tourist developments in the Maldives, newly leaked documents show.

More than 100 international and local organizations devoted to the preservation of marine wildlife raised their voice against a possible lifting of an 11 year ban on shark fishing announced by authorities in the Maldives.

Several Indian Ocean states have accused the EU’s distant water fishing fleet of engaging in neo-colonialism after the union called for weaker conservation laws while its ships plunder the bounties of the Indian Ocean. 

Maldivian authorities must take action against those causing environmental destruction to the vulnerable islands and have to be transparent about it, a joint press release by 11 Maldivian conservation organizations said.

A Maldives court ordered the detention of former President Yameen Abdul Gayoom on Monday for the duration of his money laundering trial, following reports he is attempting to bribe witnesses.

The former president of the Maldives was charged with grand corruption, money laundering and theft on Wednesday, the Diplomat, a Tokyo-based news magazine covering the Asia-Pacific, reported.

Abdulla Yameen, the autocratic leader of the Maldives whose rule saw the corrupt handouts of 50 of the country’s islands, was defeated on Sunday in a landslide election that elevated opposition lawmaker Ibrahim Mohamed Solih to power after five years of deepening autocracy.

Maldives tourism isn’t all swaying palm trees and white sand beaches. The truth is something far uglier.

 Maldives President Abdulla Yameen has dismissed a petition from opposition leaders that called on the island nation’s Supreme Court to temporarily remove him from office and investigate allegations of corruption against him, Al Jazeera reported on Monday.