The top prosecutor in the Maldives has filed money-laundering charges against Abdulla Yameen over allegations the former president was the recipient of $1m stolen from state coffers in the country’s biggest corruption scandal.

The charges, which carry a jail sentence of up to 15 years, were filed on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the prosecutor general’s office told Al Jazeera.

Yameen, 59, who suffered a decisive defeat in last year’s presidential election, has denied any wrongdoing.

During his tenure, more than $79m obtained by the Maldives tourism board from leasing islands for tourism were diverted to private accounts, cashed out, and used to bribe politicians. The case was the subject of the Al Jazeera investigative documentary, Stealing Paradise.

In secretly filmed interviews, associates of the former president said they delivered some of the stolen cash to Yameen’s residence in black bags.  “For the president, it was even difficult to carry those bags,” said one of the three men who delivered the cash. The charges filed against Yameen on Wednesday relate to claims he received the money through SOF Private Limited, a private company linked to his former deputy, which was used to launder tourism revenues from the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation, the country’s tourism board.