Morocco Tax Official Sentenced in $3.7 Million Embezzlement Scheme

The accomplices of the tax collector, namely his wife (banker) and his two parents (both retired), were each sentenced to four years in prison, reports Le360. Similarly, the chamber of financial crimes (first instance) near the court of appeal of Rabat sentenced a group of defendants, including an entrepreneur and several company executives, involved in this case, to a shared sentence of 22 years in prison.

This case of embezzlement of public funds and money laundering had come to light in 2019. "The investigation and audit operations confirmed that the main suspect in this case had paid large sums of money into the account of a front company, in the name of the second defendant, under the pretext of imputing the corporate tax surplus. The embezzled amounts, totaling 39 million dirhams, were spent on the purchase of real estate and movable assets, while a portion of these funds was deposited into various bank accounts," said a statement from the General Directorate of National Security (DGSN).

To date, the Directorate General of Taxes (DGI) has been able to recover the entire amount of cash embezzled, nearly 30 million dirhams, and seized movable and immovable assets worth a total of 9 million dirhams.