Sonatrach 2 Scandal: “Amount of embezzled money equals budgets of states like Morocco or Greece”

According to a host of economic experts, the amount of the embezzled money as part of the Sonatrach 2 and Sonelgaz corruption scandals brought to the public limelight recently equals the operating budgets of states like Morocco, Syria or Greece.

Economic expert Farid Benyahia said that several billion dollars had been diverted and laundered by numerous high executives of the 2 giant Algerian companies since the year 1999 until the recent exposure of several of these culprits  with on focus former energy and mines minister Chakib Khelil and his close relatives in addition to his right-hand man Farid Bedjaoui, the nephew of former Algerian foreign Minister Mohamed Bedjaoui .

They are now wanted now officially by the Algerian justice through the issuing of an international arrest warrant against them.

Farid Benyahia explained that the hundreds of millions of dollars embezzled by Chakib Khelil and his accomplices, roughly the equivalent of 1.600 billion dinars, could have been used by Algeria for the construction of roads, scores of new housing units, worth 3 million dinars each as well as  several water-dams or many health care facilities across the country.

For his part, another economic expert Abderrahmane Toumi asserted that the funds embezzled as part of the Sonatrach 2 and Sonelgaz corruption affairs exceeded 3 billion dollars.

He pointed out that this huge financial package could have been used by Algeria for the construction of educational centers across the 48 provinces of the country or manifold health care centers but the dirty hands grabbed it from the national public treasury through horrendous corruption and bribery practices with International ramifications.

Chakib Khelil, 74, is wanted along with eight others, including his wife and two sons, for “corruption, abuse of authority and belonging to an international criminal network,” the public prosecutor said on Monday.

Algerian Attorney-General Belkacem Zeghmati said international arrest warrants have been issued against nine of the 22 suspects involved in the scandal involving Sonatrach, which works in partnership with several foreign companies including Total, GDF (France) and ENI (Italy).

“Only three countries, namely France, Italy and Switzerland have shown willingness to cooperate with the Algerian judiciary in the case,” he added.

The Algerian judicial authorities launched a probe into the corruption allegations involving Sonatrach and Italy’s Eni SpA when Italian and Canadian media reported that Saipem, a subsidiary of Eni SpA, and SNC Lavalin (Canada) paid millions of dollars as bribe to Farid Bedjaoui for a one-billion-dollar contract with the national energy corporation.

In late July, Algerian Minister of Justice Mohamed Charfi said the Sonatrach case probe revealed existence of an international corruption network, and that “about 90 percent of the people involved in this corruption case have been identified”.