Maghreb Bank for Investment and Foreign Trade covers $13 million loss

Officials at the Maghreb Bank for Investment and Foreign Trade covers a $13.6 million loss due to unpaid credits related to liquidated private banks including Khalifa Bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank owned by Ahmed Kharoubi and a businessman.

The Maghreb Bank for Investment and Foreign Trade is an Algerian-Libyan bank founded in 1988. Official documents show that it lost $13.63 million through transactions with three liquidated banks.

The bank has had the same board of directors since 1994 although clear clauses in its status stipulate alternation.

According to the same documents, the losses, catastrophic management operations and money smuggling to foreign banks were covered by the bank.

The bank’s officials organize luxury dinners and offer very expensive presents to representatives of public shareholder banks to buy their silence and continue to transfer the clients of those banks to the Maghreb Bank.

The bank’s director and his assistant use its money freely as they travel abroad three times per month under the cover of missions in order to benefit from fees estimated at $5,000 for each mission.

The value of the presents offered by the bank in 2012 reached 200 million centimes. They included 70 Samsung Galaxy phones while iPads were offered in 2013 to executives in public shareholder banks.