Real estate scandal in Casablanca: 15 years later, three developers are finally sleeping in prison

Three businessmen, including two brothers, have been placed in pre-trial detention at the Oukacha prison after being brought before the King’s Prosecutor. According to information reported by the newspaper Assabah, the defendants are being prosecuted for fraud and breach of trust. The dispute concerns a real estate project in Sidi Maarouf, the construction of which has been interrupted for more than a decade, leaving hundreds of buyers without housing despite having paid their savings.

The public prosecutor’s office had initially favored an amicable resolution, granting several deadlines to the developers to regularize the situation. The latter claimed to be waiting for a bank loan to restart the construction site and guarantee the rights of the victims. However, these commitments remained unfulfilled, while the bank initially financing the project obtained the auction sale of the assets for 485 million dirhams, a procedure that threatens to definitively exclude the families who had already paid for their apartments.

The judicial investigation revealed massive embezzlement of funds amounting to more than 300 million dirhams. Instead of being invested in construction, these funds would have been used to finance the lifestyle of the executives, including the purchase of luxury apartments on the seafront. The investigations also reveal that nearly 10 million dirhams were paid in salaries in 2018, even though the activity on the construction site was officially at a standstill.

The continuation of the investigation could involve other players, the newspaper mentioning accomplices within the entourage of the entrepreneurs. The fraud system was based in particular on the creation of fictitious companies and the integration of unjustified invoices in the company’s accounts to capture the advances of the clients.