55 suspects and witnesses at the core of « Somic » scandal withinSonatrach

The General Prosecutor referred on Tuesday the shady file of Sonatrach’s industrial maintenance unit « Somic « in which 55 people ranging among accused and witnesses, most of them former and current directors and heads of departments in addition to several employees and contractors, to the examining magistrate specialized in penal affairs at the magistrate’s court of the city of Constantine in eastern Algeria.

The examining magistrate in charge of this somber file is to inquire into the source of money, the reported insolent opulence, which appeared on many of the suspects in this case, in addition to checking their bank accounts as well as their standing financial assets including possible transfers of hard currency to bank accounts overseas.

Reliable sources told Echorouk that preliminary investigations showed a glaring misappropriation and manipulation of public funds through fake transactions initiated by several managers of the “Somic” company with foreign firms notably with the US “Kabiar” company for the renewal of a gas tanker for an enormous financial  package estimated at $ 2.85 billion dollars.

It should be noted that the investigating judge of the Magistrate’s Court of Skikda, ordered last July that 19 of the 55 defendants suspected of direct involvement in the Somic embezzlement affair to be put under judicial control.

They also had their passports withdrawn by the relevant judicial authorities in order to prevent them from fleeing the country until the completion of the ongoing investigation.

Among the accused stand several current and former managers including two women of this Sonatrach subsidiary based in Skikda province as well as several foreign contractors notably an American and a Japanese suspected by justice of shady and illicit transactions with the “Somic” company.