Tunisia: businessman and three executives of public bank in police custody for corruption
Three executives of a public bank, including a retired former general director, have been taken into custody by the public prosecutor of the Economic Judicial Unit. They are suspected of financial corruption and money laundering. This decision follows the detention yesterday of a businessman active in the fodder and poultry sectors, according to Mohamed Zitouna, spokesperson for the Court of First Instance of Tunis, who talked today on the airwaves of Mosaique FM. The public prosecutor of the Economic and Financial Judicial Unit permitted agents of the first central brigade for the investigation of financial crimes of the Aouina National Guard to place the businessman in police custody.
According to Mohamed Zitouna, this police custody is related to suspicions of financial and administrative corruption, the carrying out of suspicious financial transactions and accusations of money laundering. In a statement reported by Mosaïque FM radio, Zitouna clarified yesterday that the case dates back to a probe carried out by the first central brigade for the investigation of financial crimes of the National Guard of Aouina concerning a manbusinessman who allegedly used his companies to carry out suspicious financial transactions and launder money, intending to legitimize funds of dubious origin. In particular, he allegedly increased the capital of a public bank by 25 million dinars, paid from a receivable account belonging to one of his companies, and, in a second phase, a bank loan of 11 million dinars to him.would have been granted on the same day as its contribution to the capital, with the complicity of certain managers of this bank, to legitimize the capital increase.