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Seizing property from Algeria’s oligarchs: When executive management turns to plunder

Broadcast United News Desk
Seizing property from Algeria’s oligarchs: When executive management turns to plunder

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Posted on August 29, 2024

Lecture: 3 minutes.

This is a unique trial, which opened in the Algerian court of Sidi M’hamed on August 27. In the dock we do not find senior officials or businessmen from the former president’s regime, as we are used to. Abdelaziz BouteflikaOver the past five years, many of them have been tried in corruption and bribery cases, and many of them have been convicted. Diversion No, at the end of August, those who faced the judges were those who were justly appointed to guard the ruins left by the oligarchs of the old regime: judicial administrators.

How gravely does justice condemn these people: they use their position to enrich themselves. should It is a state-appointed shield to protect what remains of a seized economic empire after the brutal downfall of its owner.

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Four of them were summoned to the bar, and the accusations contained in the referral order read out by the clerk exploded: excessive salaries, non-transparent transactions, improper transfers to personal accounts, problematic management… For them, the numbers were flying. High: up to 6 million dinars remuneration Every month, businesses are failing, thousands of workers are losing their jobs, and the loss to public finances was estimated at 20 million dinars during the hearings.

The four directors were responsible for managing the businessman’s transport empire between December 2019 and the end of 2020. Mahidin Tahkutfrom Hassan Arbaoui’s global group, which operates in the sector car Home Appliances Group Vultureand even the Chelghoum brothers’ legacy in hydraulics.

In turn, the four defendants raised the argument of legal vacuum to defend themselves against the charges against them. According to them, despite several letters to the Minister of Finance and two meetings at the Prime Minister’s Office, the state never clearly stipulated their salary conditions. exist The Condor Group administrator stated that there were “5 to 6 ministers” present. For the defendants, in the absence of official regulations, they had to determine their own salaries. This led the court to consider these amounts excessive.

Sky-high salaries and questionable deals

The four managers also insisted that if the authorities had set salary scales for judicial managers, the abuses condemned would not have happened. Production, It is the state’s neglect that creates an environment ripe for a variety of interpretations and practices that, while controversial, are not explicitly prohibited.

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However, the list of charges does not end there. The four defendants are also accused of carrying out suspicious transactions that led to the deterioration of the financial situation of the companies they were responsible for. The Bad Asset management and misappropriation of funds that could have been used to stabilize these companies. “I sign hundreds of decisions every day. I don’t have the required experience, but I have to answer the call of my motherland,” one of them explained, choking up.

In response to the defendant’s argument regarding a legal vacuum, the prosecutor argued that such a vacuum does not justify the amount of compensation. salary Even without clear guidelines, it goes far beyond what can be considered ethical. “Far from fulfilling his duty to protect the seized company, the defendant took advantage of the situation to blatantly abuse his power and transform his public service mission into a scandal of corruption and greed,” the prosecutor’s representative insisted in the indictment.

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II Detailed He also highlighted the dangerous financial choices and the lack of a recovery strategy, stressing the economic consequences of these actions and especially the social consequences, namely the huge financial losses and unpaid wages, which triggered a protest movement among the employees of the companies concerned. For this, he called for a maximum sentence of ten years in prison and a million dollars for them. dinar Beautiful.

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