Moroccan ’Iron Lady’ Sentenced to 5 Years for $15 Million Embezzlement Scheme

The verdict is in: the criminal chamber of the Court of Appeal of Rabat in charge of financial crimes sentenced the main defendant in the case of embezzlement, forgery, fraud, forgery and use of forgery and breach of trust in a large investment group in the Souss, to five years in prison. The one nicknamed the "iron lady" of the Souss is accused of having embezzled 150 million dirhams. In addition to the prison sentence, she was ordered to pay the plaintiffs the sum of 140 million dirhams, report the Arabic-language dailies Assabah and Al Akhbar.

The defense’s requests for the "iron lady" to be granted provisional release due to her state of health were rejected by the criminal chamber of the Court of Appeal of Rabat. Also involved in this case, a notary was sentenced to two and a half years in prison and a fine of 50,000 dirhams. He must also pay the civil party the sum of three million dirhams. The 46 acts he established were simply canceled.

The "iron lady" had been sentenced to five years in prison in the first instance, on November 9, 2021. A sentence aggravated by the Court of Appeal of Agadir. It had sentenced her to 10 years of criminal imprisonment. Enough to push the lawyers of the defendant to appeal. In turn, the Court of Cassation annulled the verdict rendered in Agadir in criminal matters, referring the trial and the parties to the Court of Appeal of Rabat. The defendant has always claimed her innocence. She claimed that it was a "case of revenge." Allegations contradicted by the lawyers of the civil party. They had specified to the court that the accused had ceded to her sons several real estate properties and illegally transferred large sums of money abroad.