The Trial Of The “Paysera” Bank Scandal Slated For September 10th 2024

The Economic and Financial Penal Pole Court in Sidi M’hamed in Algiers postponed on Tuesday, until September 10, the  examining of the file of the “Paysera Bank” cross-border network, in which 11 defendants are being prosecuted for violations of legislation and regulations related to money exchange and the movement of capital from and to abroad and failure to obtain the required licenses from the public authorities.
The postponement came at the request of the defense team, as after the defendants entered the courtroom, including two detainees, one on the run and 8 non-detainees, the judge of the second branch of the Economic and Financial Pole began calling on the defendants, civil parties and witnesses, so that the defense team submitted a request to put off the trial, and the president of the session decided to postpone the ruling on the file until the above-mentioned date.
The Indictment Chamber of the Algiers Judicial Council, at the beginning of July, upheld the decision of the investigating judge of the Economic and Financial Penal Pole in Sidi M’hamed, rejecting the appeal of the Public Prosecution Office of the same judicial body to characterize the facts against the defendants prosecuted in the case of the cross-border “Paysera Bank” network, and also dropped the charge of tax evasion against the main defendant in the case.
On June 3, the investigating judge of the first chamber of the Economic and Financial Penal Pole had referred the “Paysera Bank” network file to the Public Prosecution Office, which decided to appeal to the Indictment Chamber of the Algiers Judicial Council.
It is known that the judicial investigations revealed that the members of the organized cross-border network used a front call center to cover the activity of the Lithuanian e-bank branch “Paysera”, which is not authorized in Algeria.
The beginning dates back to 2013, when the two suspects applied to the “ANSEJ” agency at the time to benefit from financial support, in order to establish a call center called OG SOLUTION, whose activity is based on receiving phone calls for economic clients, but its reality hides a fully-fledged bank branch of a foreign country with illegal financial transactions that was created secretly without a license from the Algerian authorities.
The members of the network, through this fictitious bank branch that operates under the cover of the OG SOLUTION company, transfer capital to and from abroad and launder criminal proceeds, in addition to resorting to illegal activities and using fake invoices, while the accused company manager “S. Karim” admitted that the “ANSEJ” agency supported them with 1 billion centimes.
After years, the institution’s activity began to take a new form, as it deviated from the previously authorized legal path, and here an illegal contract was signed with the electronic bank “Paysera”, which is not licensed in Algeria, where the activity turned into carrying out financial transactions authorized exclusively for banking institutions.
On the other hand, investigations found that members of the organized cross-border network ignored the instructions issued by the “Financial Intelligence Processing Cell in charge of combating money laundering and terrorist financing”, affiliated with the Ministry of Finance, which ordered all banks and financial institutions not to deal with the foreign bank “Paysera”, headquartered in “Lithuania”, which cost the state treasury, according to initial estimates, 200 billion centimes.