Morocco Seizes Assets of Officials in Multi-Million Dirham Corruption Crackdown

Several elected officials from Marrakech, including parliamentarians, some members of the City Council, a former municipal tax collector, the former Vice-President of the City Council, are affected by these seizures.

The Regional Court of Accounts had sentenced them to pay colossal sums of money to the Moroccan State, reports Al Massae. It is a matter of paying fines and restituting embezzled funds, the amounts of which exceed 8 million dirhams.

In this sense, the competent authorities have been called upon to enforce the judgments rendered against them. Thus, they have identified the assets of the persons concerned in bank deposits as well as in real estate and land assets. Subsequently, they proceeded to freeze their bank accounts and to seize their property on a precautionary basis. De facto, the State is doing everything to recover what is owed to it.

As examples, a local RNI official was ordered to pay a fine of 370,000 dirhams, as well as other local elected officials from other parties such as the PAM and the UC. A local UC leader, for his part, must personally reimburse an amount of 400,000 dirhams. With other elected officials and civil servants from the City Council, a total amount of 11.23 million dirhams will be returned to the State.