A manager of a banking agency has expressed his management of suspicious operations on business accounts operating in the building and public works sector (BTP). The general management then alerted the National Financial Intelligence Authority (ANRF) which diligent an investigation, reports Hespress. The first elements reveal regular deposits of significant amounts via checks issued by trading partners affiliated with ecrans. These almost daily deposits made on the accounts of recently created companies, aroused the suspicions of the banking framework which reviewed the documents provided by these companies to open their bank accounts.
To read: a vast fraud with discovery invoices in Morocco
ANRF investigators concentrated their investigations in four suspicious companies that have regularly settled their debts via bank transfers and checks. They sought to know the real beneficiaries of the fired funds as well as the identity of service providers or the beneficiaries of work, without failure to analyze their tax situation, discovering that some of these companies, led by Moroccans residing abroad, especially in France, are in good standing with the Moroccan tax authorities and filed their tax declarations in time. However, the analysis of the tax declarations of two of these companies revealed inconsistencies with their bank statements and the accounting data provided. These irregularities concerned in particular overcharging prices of building materials, equipment and labor costs.
To read: tax fraud in Morocco: targeted doctors and engineers
The ANRF has sent 71 money laundering and terrorism funding files to the courts of Rabat, Casablanca, Fez and Marrakech, as well as to the Attorney General at the Rabat Court of Appeal in 2023, she said in its annual report, noting an increase of 31.48 % compared to the previous year. The files mainly relate to the falsification or alteration of bank statements, means of payment or other supporting documents, cases of fraud and fraud, or money laundering through sports betting, pyramidal sales systems and cryptoactives.
