“Khalifa” type financial scandal triggers media uproar

The criminal court of Algiers yesterday started hearing the main convicts in the so-called “Achour Abderrehman” affair after four years of investigations in a financial scandal implicating some 25 defendants, with two of them still being at large.

• Most of the accused in the dock  were top managers at the Algerian National Bank (BNA). They have to face their prosecutor and answer for the charges levelled against them concerning the embezzlement of 3.2 billion Algerian Dinars (32 million Euros).
• The judge started calling up the culprits one by one  for identification then proceeded to the setting up of their defense that comprises some 63 lawyers. The identification process lasted more than 2 hours.
• “Echourok” reported that Achour Abderrehmane was showing signs of fatigue and worry especially that he was sentenced to four years imprisonment two days before in another case of forgery. The court room was packed with local and international media which came to cover the trial.
• The events go back to 2005 when the Algerian National Bank received an anonymous letter saying that the main convict Abderrehmane Achour made illegal transactions  using  “ghost” companies to get credits.
• The latter supposedly embezzled huge sums of money with the complicity of top managers in the same bank.
• It should be noted that this affair is seen as the second major financial scandal after the tremendous “Khalifa” affair. 
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