Real Estate Cooperative Leaders Jailed for $3 Million Fraud in Morocco

The accused were all members of the "Bassatine" cooperative in El Mansouria (Benslimane province). President B.A was sentenced to 9 years, his wife N.B to 2 years, treasurer S.Z and assessor A.F respectively to 7 years each of imprisonment, reports the daily Assabah. In addition to the prison sentences, the four accused must pay the sum of 30.95 million dirhams in damages to the members of the housing cooperative.

The case came to light when 200 members filed a complaint, claiming that since the creation of the cooperative in 2015, they had each paid down payments of more than 300,000 dirhams, but had never been summoned to a general meeting to understand how the deposited funds were being managed.

Not only do they accuse the members of the office of never having paid for the land on which the housing units were to be built, but they also realized that the owner of the land had filed a complaint against the office for a bounced check of 15 million dirhams, while construction work had already begun. In addition, the real estate developer has stopped the work due to non-payment.

The members then discovered that the cooperative’s leaders were making illegal expenses by transferring money from the accounts to their personal accounts. The police investigation revealed that the sum of 15 million dirhams had been transferred to the account of the accused A.F, who was sentenced to 7 years in prison.