The issue is worthy of a thriller. From 2017 to 2021, the company Chronopost International Maroc saw its bank accounts empty worth more than 5 million euros, according to a provisional estimate. Revealed on November 8 by the news site. The deskThis large-scale scam is linked to a modus operandi that has nothing to envy of that of mafia gangs. In addition to accounting fraud, false signatures, covert transfers and cash withdrawals, there is blackmail, monitoring, death threats and even assassination attempts.
As a sign that this embezzlement operation has a particular character, the investigation passed from the hands of the Casablanca judicial police to those of the national brigade specialized in major financial crimes, organized crime and terrorism. The incriminated events, if they took place in Morocco, have repercussions as far as France. One of the two owners of the parcel delivery company is none other than La Poste, through its subsidiary Geopost. The latter, like the second shareholder, the Moroccan postal operator Barid Al-Maghrib, have become civil parties.
The amount of funds misappropriated is described as“exceptionally high” by a source close to the investigation. But as disproportionate and atypical as it may be, the matter owes its media coverage to one man: the former CEO of Chronopost, Abderrahim El Idrissi. Suspected of being one of the authors of the embezzlement, who is now described as a “whistleblower” He was removed from office in 2021 and then sentenced last April to a year in prison for gross negligence. Free after being detained for twenty-six months, from 2022 to 2024, the man claims to be innocent.
Since charges of embezzlement had not been brought against Abderrahim El Idrissi, the lawyer for the civil party, who demanded twenty years in prison and restitution of the embezzled sums, appealed the sentence. Contacted by the worldThe post office “does not wish to comment on a case currently under investigation”. As for the Barid Al-Maghrib group, it could not be contacted immediately.
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Quoted by The deskAbderrahim El Idrissi describes this extraordinary fraud as the intrusion of “hard crime” in the business world in Morocco. Although its first traces date back to 2017, the embezzlements were initially limited: around 100,000 euros until 2019. Only the following year did they gain momentum, while the company’s financial director suffered harassment and was even stabbed in the street by unknown persons. in December 2019. The cabal achieved its goal: to terrorize him and obtain his exit. At the helm: three Chronopost employees, one of whom, until now an accountant, succeeds him. The other two are the treasurer and a distribution agent.
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