Sonatrach Scandal: Defendants got Financial Assets in French Banks

Reliable sources told Echorouk, that the magistrate of the Ninth room at the criminal court of Sidi M’hamed in Algiers, called, last week end, the former General Manager of Sonatrach (Mohammad. M) and the other defendants in the case of Sonatrach, to inform them of the results of the rogatory letters of ‭Paris court ‭on their assets ‭in the French banks , which came‬ in the ‭framework of‭ ‬ the supplementary investigation that was ordered by the room of ‭ ‬ charges at Algiers court‭ ‬council,‬ the end of October ‭2011. ‬

These judicial pursuits came ‭to verify the source of money ‭and bank assets of Sonatrach officials, ‭and workers who are implicated‭ with them, which is a ‭result of the crimes of laundering money and ‭bribery that have a relationship with the charges against them. ‬

According to sources close to the file, reports of the Court of Paris on the property of the defendants in the case of Sonatrach, proved on the whole, the possession of Sonatrach officials and other workers with them, on various financial assets in French banks, as our sources that the results of the judicial pursuit have shown that there are accounts of some defendants in the case, that have been opened for years, and even before they come to their offices in the company Sonatrach, while showing that there are accounts of co-defendants which contain important sums of money, which were opened during their term at mportant positions in the same company.

Our sources also revealed that there are defendants who do not have any accounts in the French banks, as the judicial pursuit still in progress across many European countries, despite the passage of nine months, since the Algerian justice stent letters to the various judicial authorities abroad, on investigating in the properties and assets of the defendants in the case of Sonatrach, as preliminary investigations showed that they axceed more than 7 billion euros, which have been deposited in various foreign banks.

It is known that the investigation in the case of Sonatrach is still ongoing since the begining of the case in early January 2010, after the command to open a complementary invetigation in the case since October 2011, to keep this file – which still raises a lot of controversy – through the statements of the defendants, emphasing in their entirety that Chakib Khalil, the former Minister of Energy and Mines, was aware of the transactions by mutual consent with foreign companies. 14 people, including the former general manager of Sonatrach, his two sons, ‭and the Director of a German company, and four executive directors, are all implicated in this case. ‬