Morocco Uncovers Major Financial Fraud Network Involving Foreign ’Investors’

The investigations prove fruitful. The companies and their foreign managers have been identified thanks to collaboration between inspectors from the Exchange Office and the competent services of the Customs and Indirect Taxes Administration and the General Tax Directorate, report sources to Hespress, specifying that the network has transferred considerable amounts over the past three years. Previously, it ensured the regularization of the legal status of companies used in its activities, by paying customs duties arrears and tax obligations within legal deadlines.

Exchange Office inspectors initially devoted part of their research to inventorying commercial operations carried out by the "foreign companies" suspected of being used to transfer funds, before focusing on data relating to the transfer of large amounts from export operation profits, instead of repatriating them to Morocco, to bank accounts in foreign tax havens, according to the same sources.

Other irregularities were also discovered: some companies are involved in inflating import invoices, in collusion with exporters from Europe, Asia and South America, in order to increase the amounts of import financing authorized to be transferred to the accounts of exporting entities abroad, including import advances capped at 30%, and to conceal the difference in accounts abroad.