Belgian Police Raid Moroccan Bank Branches in Major Money Laundering Probe

According to sources close to the investigation, it involves activities related to money laundering, economic fraud, as well as suspicions of misuse of corporate assets, the press reports, adding that three Chaabi Bank agencies in Belgium were raided on October 7: the Brussels branch on Rue Midi, the one in the Molenbeek-Saint Jean district of the Belgian capital and the one in Borgerhout in Antwerp. Documents, files and equipment were seized. Officials and agents, including the director of the Chaabi Bank branch in Belgium, were questioned.

Sources cited by the Moroccan press mention the involvement of Chaabi Bank agents in covering up money laundering operations for some 68 clients residing in Belgium who have acquired real estate in Morocco and Spain. Several parliamentarians, local government officials, and businessmen in the provinces of Nador and Al Hoceima would not be unrelated to this case.

It should be recalled that Chaabi Bank is the French subsidiary of the Moroccan banking group Banque Populaire, whose parent company is the Banque Centrale Populaire (BCP).