Morocco Customs Fraud Exposed: 1.17 Billion Dirhams Scheme

To orchestrate this massive capital flight, the fraudsters simulated commercial transactions to justify financial transfers to foreign partner companies. Faced with the opacity of this fraudulent scheme, tax inspectors demanded detailed statements from banking institutions for the targeted importers. This request aims to precisely trace outgoing monetary flows and assess financial guarantees registered in their names.

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The scheme relied on meticulous double accounting manipulation. The suspects undervalued their merchandise by 30 to 50% when passing through customs to reduce taxes, then inflated these same amounts in their tax declarations to artificially increase their expenses and reduce their taxes. The use of artificial intelligence algorithms made it possible to detect these anomalies, trapping notably two companies in textiles and electrical equipment for false invoices exceeding 450 million dirhams.

In total, investigations target seven companies active in import-export and services, guilty of defrauding the public treasury on transactions valued at 1.17 billion dirhams. According to information reported by Hespress, the exact location of the allegedly imported products remains untraceable. Customs services are currently attempting to reconstruct the routes of these phantom goods in close collaboration with other administrations.

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This dismantling is part of a global policy of enhanced control. Last year, merchandise value verification alone made it possible to examine 23.5 billion dirhams in transactions, generating the recovery of 6.97 billion dirhams in additional duties. In total, increased rigor in IT risk management generated 8.09 billion dirhams in additional customs revenue, compared to 6.24 billion in 2024.