Real Estate Fraud Scandal Rocks Benslimane: Association Leaders Jailed, Others Face Charges

The two officials of the "Al Hamd" Housing Association being prosecuted in a state of arrest, have been placed in pre-trial detention in the Benslimane prison, on the orders of the investigating judge of the court of first instance of the city, reports the daily Al Ahdath Al Maghribia. The other members of the office, also accused of fraud and breach of trust like the other two, are being prosecuted on provisional release.

After several complaints that went unanswered since 2018 in Ain Sebaa, Mohammedia and Benslimane, the victims finally seized the presidency of the public prosecutor’s office in Rabat, which allowed the opening of an investigation by the Benslimane public prosecutor’s office. The amount of unsubstantiated expenses by the two main accused amounts to 2 million dirhams, revealed sources close to the investigation.

At the beginning of the investigation, the president of the Association had declared having paid a commission of 1.40 million dirhams to the intermediary at the time of the acquisition of the land on which the project was carried out. Contradicted by the general secretary of the Association, he went back on his words to affirm that the treasurer had omitted to remove this expense from the expense book after the decision of the office to no longer use this intermediary.