Report: Algerian officials smuggle corruption money to British Virgin Islands and Singapore

Algerians who own banking accounts and firms resulted from corruption managed to hide their suspicious wealth, according to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

The Washington-based non-profit organization published a data base of leaked documents untitled ‘offshore leaks.’ It includes names of personalities and officials in different countries in the world including Algeria who have stakes in firms in ‘tax heavens’ around the world.

The data base which is posted on the organization’s website shows that millions of e-mails and documents leaked from ‘tax heavens’ include names of some personalities, officials and firms in ‘tax heavens’ in the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cook Islands and Singapore.

The data base includes names of Algerian firm owners from the province of El Oued (south of Algiers) and Douira in the capital specialized in commerce, importing, exporting and medicines trade.

Earlier in May, the African Development Bank said wealth smuggled to abroad from Algeria reached $2,173 billion in 1980-2009.

According to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, wealth smugglers operate inside very complex networks. Because of that, tracking smuggled money resulted from corruption and tax evasion is almost impossible.

Algeria has never called for recovering smuggled money since its independence.

A Swiss member of Parliament called on Algeria to submit a request to recover stolen money deposited in Swiss banks. Yet, Algeria turned a deaf ear to this call.