Moroccan Exporters Under Scrutiny: Customs Probes Illicit Fund Transfers Abroad

Moroccan businessmen are suspected of having illegally received a substantial portion of export revenues outside the national territory, before depositing these sums in bank accounts abroad. The examination of these suspicious transactions, involving companies operating in the agri-food, textile, clothing and local products sectors, made it possible to identify the managers of these companies, as well as their direct links with the managers of foreign companies, according to sources at Hespress. Some of these foreign partners are in the sights of the financial surveillance services of several European countries, notably Germany and France.

The investigation missions focused on gathering information on the collusion between Moroccan exporters and foreign importers in export operations, in order to receive a significant portion of the commercial revenues generated abroad, before integrating them into circuits of bank accounts spread across several countries, to be finally deposited in tax havens, particularly in Central American countries and in cryptocurrency portfolios. The "BADR" system and the "PortNet" platform were used as part of the audit.

The examination of the previous export operations of the targeted companies reveals a significant concentration of transactions with certain foreign companies, mainly based in Europe. The exporters implicated are suspected of having taken advantage of the substantial volume and diversity of exported products to circumvent the foreign exchange legislation. For the time being, the value of the profits not repatriated to Morocco cannot be assessed, due to the ongoing audit and inventory of the commercial operations carried out by the three companies suspected, as well as by other entities recently reported.