Moroccan Tax Authorities Probe Suspicious Foreign Bankruptcies and Money Transfers

Based on precise information from reports and intelligence notes, the controllers of the Exchange Office, in close coordination with the General Tax Directorate and the Customs and Indirect Tax Administration, are thoroughly examining documents related to Moroccan projects that have gone bankrupt abroad. In parallel, they have launched in-depth investigations into significant money transfers made by Moroccan investors to several European and African countries, particularly France, Ivory Coast, and Mali.

It all started with the detection of fraud indicators in annual accounting statements, notably an abnormal decrease in profits and an overestimation of expenses, contradicting the usual performances observed in the same sectors and host countries. Moroccan investors are suspected of deliberately declaring their projects bankrupt to justify the absence of profits while allegedly transferring more than 820 million dirhams, without any tangible impact in terms of investment being recorded, according to sources at Hespress.

Four Moroccan investors are under scrutiny by the Exchange Office. They allegedly attempted to evade their legal obligations regarding fund repatriation. Some investors suspected of fraud have sought the services of foreign experts and accounting firms specializing in falsifying financial documents, operating particularly in Africa, to simulate an artificial deterioration of their companies’ financial health in order to deceive control bodies, according to the same sources. These experts are suspected of obtaining administrative documents and manipulating accounts before sending funds to secret accounts located in tax havens.

The controllers have also carried out electronic exchanges of information with counterpart institutions in Europe and Central America, under international agreements to combat fraud and money laundering.

What do the current texts say? In accordance with the provisions of Article 169 of the general instructions for exchange operations, the Exchange Office requires Moroccan companies (legal entities) wishing to invest abroad to have at least three years of activity, and their accounts must be certified without reservation by an auditor, it is specified. The office also insists on the necessity of a link between the planned investment abroad and the company’s activity, which investment must aim to strengthen and develop this activity, and must not involve financial placement operations or real estate assets. The authorized amount for investment abroad, for each resident legal entity and for each calendar year, as stipulated in Article 169 of the said instructions, is set at 200 million dirhams.