Moroccan Officials Implicated in Massive Real Estate Scandal Spanning Major Cities

According to these documents, the persons involved would have reserved for political allies, relatives and acquaintances, plots of land within large residential subdivisions, exceeding 120 hectares for some and carried out in several phases. These lands are then resold by "withdrawal" through intermediaries, without paying the necessary taxes or duties. The transaction is carried out before a notary in order to give a legal character to the operations.

One of the reports mentions real estate speculation in administrative annex no. 2 of the commune of Deroua, province of Berrechid, on the outskirts of Casablanca, near the "Al Massira" project. An administrative investigation commission will be dispatched in order to determine the responsibilities and take the necessary legal measures. Several speculators on land plots in real estate developments in the peripheral provinces of Casablanca have already been targeted by tax adjustments. The latter have reaped substantial profits by evading income tax on land profits (TPI) in subdivisions located on the outskirts of major cities such as Casablanca, Marrakech and Tangier.

The tax inspectors also discovered the existence of thousands of reserved but unbuilt lots for months, as well as irregularities in the tax returns of real estate developers and subdividers, revealing reservations made outside the bank accounts of the companies concerned. The reports also mention the involvement of subdivider-speculators in the direct acquisition of large areas of agricultural land and lots located in residential subdivisions, through real estate civil companies (SCI). They also mention speculation operations on real estate purchase contracts for the benefit of third parties, in return for substantial financial commissions.