950 million bribe to conceal public money squandering by Sonatrach’s company

Officials at Sonatrach-owned Tassili issued a 950-million-centime check to Aures Aviation in an attempt to cover management wrongdoings, the ban of a national deal from one side and Sonatrach’s money squandering, Echorouk has learnt.

According to official documents, the check was issued on May 16^th, 2012 from the Exterior Bank’s agency in Hydra area in Algiers. Investigations show that it was meant to push Aures Aviation to keep silent and not to fill a lawsuit to unveil wrongdoings in contracts conclusion.

A former pilot’s assistant at Khalifa Airways was behind the operation. He was appointed as a manager at Tassili company.

The documents show that the company officials had limited knowledge about civil aviation. Because of that, a group of aircrafts were damaged. Of them, there were   7TVII and TVIM 7 planes which have been deteriorated since 2011 due to deals manipulation. Some of the contracts were banned from one side and money was squandered through travels to the US, Canada and Eastern Europe under the pretext of visiting foreign training schools although there were aviation national schools in Algeria.