The British Government has given the title of Order of the British Empire (OBE) to a luxury hotelier who has been highlighted in an Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) as partners to the former corrupt Minister of Tourism in the Maldives, Ahmed Adeeb.

Indian media reported that Sonashah Shivdasani, owner of the Soneva Kiri luxury resort brand in Thailand and Maldives, has been honoured with an Order of the British Empire (OBE) by the British Government in its ‘2023 Overseas and International List: Order of the Bath and Order of the British Empire’.

According to the UK govt, Sonashah Shivdasani has been honoured “for services to tourism”, alongside charity and sustainability. Shivdasani’s Soneva Kiri Resort on Thailand’s island of Koh Kood, and Soneva Jani in the Maldives portray themselves as uber luxe eco resorts.

Sonashah Shivdasani, however, is tangled up in various scandals relating to the construction of his resorts.

In 2018, for example, Sonashah Shivdasani and his Soneva Jani resort in the Maldives were highlighted in an OCCRP report as partners to the former corrupt Minister of Tourism in the Maldives, Ahmed Adeeb.

The land deals, and licensing and approvals process for hotels in the Maldives have long been a source of corrupt activity; in January 2023, former Maldives President Abdulla Yameen was jailed for 11 years for accepting bribes and money laundering relating to the leasing of an island for resort development. Once built, resorts can be used to launder significant sums of money.

Questions have been asked about how Sonashah Shivdasani was able to receive the island for his Soneva Jani Resort in the Maldives, especially since it was awarded as a ‘no-bid’ contract in 2014 – in the second year of Yameen’s presidency.

Publicly available financial reports from Tropical Island Ltd, one of the legal entities that controls the Soneva Kiri Resort, show a current and ongoing investigation by the Thai police regarding the construction of the resort and whether Sonashah Shivdasani, who was educated at some of Britain’s finest establishments Eton College and Oxford University, had the right to build the Soneva Kiri Resort as he did.

According to the local govt land department, Soneva Kiri Resort was not constructed in line with the legal safety standards required, and has been under investigation by the Department of Special Investigation by the Natural Resources and Environment Division in Thailand.

The consequences of the resort’s inadequate safety standards were made manifest in the worst possible way in March 2022. A massive fire broke out at the Soneva Kiri Resort on Koh Kut island and gutted one of the site’s villas. Charges have been brought against three executives of the resort, including Sonashah Shivdasani. The claims include causing a fire by negligence, causing damages to people’s property, endangering other persons, and allowing others to use the building for hotel business without obtaining a license from the local officials.

In a press article (The Nation, 2 July 2022), RTP’s Assistant Commissioner General Sompong Chingduang was quoted as saying: “Investigation revealed that the resort’s Villa 63, where the fire started, had never been inspected for fire safety and that the company had been renting it out to guests without notifying the registrar as required by the Hotel Act of 2004.”