Morocco Probes Foreign Companies for Suspected Tax Evasion and Money Laundering

In collaboration with the National Financial Intelligence Authority, Exchange Office agents have requested documents and supporting evidence from their counterparts in France, Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands, where companies belonging to Moroccans are allegedly conducting suspicious activities. The inspectors particularly investigated companies in Portugal, specializing in import-export, services, and distribution, discovering that they have never made tax declarations over the past four years.

The agents continued their investigations to identify these individuals and their associates and to verify their legal, financial, and tax situations in Morocco, in coordination with the services of the General Tax Directorate and the Customs and Indirect Tax Administration. These investigations revealed that several of these "investors" had never engaged in any commercial activity in the past and had simply acquired shares in Moroccan companies.

The information received by the competent European services revealed that the companies are laundering money from international drug and migrant trafficking. They are managed by European lawyers and accountants who exploit the identity of Moroccans, mostly women, to create fictitious companies and issue them professional residence cards in these European countries.