Moroccan Currency Exchange Scandal: Businesswoman Accused of 100 Million Dirham Fraud

The accused, aided by her fugitive husband, is said to have set up a well-oiled scheme in order to defraud her victims, to whom she made false promises of partnerships or issued worthless guarantee checks, reports Assabah. The public prosecutor’s office requested her placement under judicial supervision. But the businesswoman was granted provisional release after being presented before the competent judge, which angered the victims who struggle to understand this decision. How can an accused caught in the act be released, when she has defrauded nearly 100 million dirhams, they wonder. Among her victims are a British national, a Syrian residing in Morocco, and a Moroccan.

The modus operandi of the couple is simple. They gain the trust of the victims by quickly repaying small loans ranging from 50,000 to 100,000 dirhams. Then, they offer "investment opportunities" related to their currency exchange activities, guaranteeing the transactions with checks, which later proved to be worthless. The Syrian, for example, had agreed to invest more than 5 million dirhams in a thriving currency exchange office. But when it came time to conclude the partnership, the businesswoman is said to have demanded additional checks to regularize certain formalities. She is then said to have torn up the checks and claimed to have already returned the money to the victim, who was held back by accomplices and could not react until she fled.

Using the same method, she managed to defraud more than 230,000 dirhams from a Moroccan woman, as well as a British national who had signed a general power of attorney, allowing the businesswoman to appropriate his funds. According to sources close to the case, the accused’s fugitive husband would be the mastermind of the operation and the head of a structured network of informal money changers. The investigations continue, under the supervision of the competent public prosecutor’s office, to identify and apprehend all the people involved in this vast fraud case that has not finished revealing its secrets.