https://en.hespress.com/118615-moroccan-authorities-probe-fake-firms-used-to-launder-millions-through-real-estate.html

Morocco’s financial intelligence unit has expanded investigations into suspected money laundering schemes involving business figures operating between Casablanca, Tangier, and Marrakesh, according to sources cited by Hespress.

The probe centers on the creation of shell companies allegedly used to inject large amounts of undeclared cash into the formal economy, disguised through real estate loans.

Preliminary findings indicate that suspects secured mortgage loans, repaid with illicit funds, giving the appearance of legitimate capital formation. This technique allowed companies to build sizeable assets under a veneer of legality, while avoiding tax scrutiny. Investigators are working with the tax authority to determine the full scope of the sums involved.

According to the same sources, networks under review include developers, accountants, and banking intermediaries who allegedly founded small real estate firms to benefit from state incentives, particularly in subsidized housing. Properties worth billions of dirhams were reportedly purchased in the name of these companies before operations were frozen, turning them into fronts designed to evade oversight.

Two businessmen are suspected of establishing five companies in recent years to channel unexplained financial flows after tighter scrutiny was imposed on personal bank accounts. The firms were launched with minimal declared capital, but quickly received large infusions into partner accounts, part financed by bank loans later repaid from undeclared reserves.

The National Financial Intelligence Authority had already referred 71 cases of money laundering and terrorism financing to prosecutors in Rabat, Casablanca, Marrakesh, and Fes in 2023, marking a 31 percent annual increase. Fraud and forgery accounted for 38 percent of cases forwarded to courts, the same proportion as scams and swindling.

Current inquiries are focused on property acquisitions worth hundreds of millions of dirhams, allegedly masked as development projects, while repayments on oversized loans were made using the very funds intended for laundering.