President's Daughter Denies Embezzlement Allegations as Baseless

Sarah Ayesha Ibrahim, daughter of President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and First Lady Fazna Ahmed, has denied the allegations made by Channel 13 against her make-up brand as "baseless allegations".

Channel 13 had aired a programme which accused Sarah Ibrahim of having financed her makeup brand Komas Beauty from funds that had been allocated by the government for the purchase of ventilators to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak.

In a statement published earlier today, Sarah Ibrahim wrote that "Komas Beauty denies all accusations and baseless allegations incriminating the brand and its founder". The statement described Channel 13 in initiating "a campaign of gross untruths and misinformation".

Komas Beauty is the first locally-owned cosmetics brand. On October 25, Komas Beauty introduced a make-up pallette titled "Moodhu".

According to a Maldivian news outlet, the idea for Komas Beauty had been in Sarah Ibrahim's mind for the past 2 years. It wrote that makeup and cosmetics were a "passion" for Sarah, and mentioned that she had interned at Nada Salon and Aesthetic Studio in the past.

"I interned at Nada Salon around October 2018 because I wanted to learn about hairdressing. And one day, an eye-shadow palette from Urban Decay caught my attention. After that, I got the idea of starting my own make-up brand", the newspaper had quoted Sarah anonymously.

Sarah claimed that she had not wished for it to be publicly known that she was behind Komas Beauty. However, she admitted to having founded the brand after Channel 13's program.

In addition to Komas Beauty, Sarah Ibrahim owns shares in other large businesses; such as Allora Office Furniture and Pan Metal; with her brother, Yaman Ibrahim. She also owns stakes in a real-estate company active in Male City.