The investigation into the acquisition of the Augusta refinery still in progress: Ould Kaddour and his son at the Center for Investigations

The survey on the conditions of redemption. Nevertheless, in 2018, of the Augusta refinery (south of Italy), with Esso Italiana, Italian subsidiary of the American Exxonmobil, for an amount of $ 2.1 billion, deemed “exorbitant” in view of its dilapidation and its age (50), has not yet delivered all its secrets. Meanwhile,

The judge of the economic. However, financial criminal center at the Sidi M’hamed court, in Algiers, in charge of the file, is still continuing his investigations on the funds related to the transaction for which the former CEO of Sonatrach Abdelmoumène Ould Kaddour (2017-2019) was referred before the economic and financial criminal center of Algiers, in November 2022, a year after his extradition Emirates, to be tried, with his wife, Anissa Ouabdeslam, her son Nassim Ould Kaddour, in a flight situation abroad, and three of his executives. Similarly,

Available guilty investigation acquisition augusta refinery still of “dilapidation of public funds. However, abuse of function, conflict of interest and privilege of a third party in a public market”, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison, while his son and his wife (prosecuted among others for laundering) discussed respectively with a sentence (by default) of 10 years in prison and the confirmation of the international arrest warrant which he was the subject and 2 years firm. Meanwhile,

During this trial. Furthermore, the former Vice-President of Sonatrach in charge of the Marketing Department, which piloted the refinery repurchase transaction, Ahmed Mazighi, received a sentence of 7 years in prison, while Ali Raïssi, a company’s executive, was sentenced to 3 years in prison. Moreover, In December of the same year. Similarly, the Court revised the convictions downwards, imposing 10 years in prison on the former CEO of Sonatrach, 18 months suspended from his wife and 4 years in investigation acquisition augusta refinery still prison in Mazighhi, but maintained the 10 -year prison sentence against Nassim Ould Kaddour, which is the subject of an international arrest warrant. Nevertheless, The Court pronounced the confiscation of all movable. Furthermore, immovable property as well as the accounts in particular of Abdelmoumene Ould Kaddour, his wife and his son, on the run in France, as a country of refuge where he holds many real estate, as in Spain.

At the head of several European companies. he holds bank accounts in Switzerland, whose movements, according to the judicial inquiry, would be linked to the accounts of many companies belonging to his father. More than suspicion, this information, however, lacks clarification to identify the path of these funds and their origin. This is how the economic. financial criminal pole of Algiers, in charge of instruction on the Augusta affair, requested Swiss justice for legal mutual aid, to obtain bank documents investigation acquisition augusta refinery still relating to the business relationship between Nassim Ould Kaddour and a Swiss bank, the movements of funds between the latter’s accounts and those of companies belonging to his father.

Investigation acquisition augusta refinery still

Judicial cooperation

The instructor magistrate of the economic. financial criminal center has listed some 70 transfer operations through the accounts of the Sonatrach CEO, domiciled in Geneva. It must be said that cooperation between Algerian and Swiss magistrates has rarely been unsuccessful.

The Swiss justice has transferred many detailed banking documents to the economic. financial penalties which concern, among other things, the period included in 2017 which reinforce Algerian justice in its suspicions. The legal actions against this documentary transfer. on the pretext that Algerian justice “does not respect the principles of procedure” and that the case “is political since it intervenes during a context of purge in Algerian political and affairs”, were in vain. But the judicial file investigation acquisition augusta refinery still on the basis of which the magistrate instructor of the economic. financial criminal pole issued his request for mutual aid is based on established facts that Swiss justice has taken into account, to send him the claimed banking documentation.

Indeed. the instructor magistrate first established that the former Sonatrach CEO “is the economic right of several fictitious Lebanese companies created by his son Nassim Ould Kaddour” and that the latter “is also linked to several European companies of which he is the owner and various bank accounts, notably in Switzerland”.

For the magistrate. the funds contained in said accounts come from commissions granted to the father, in return for his illegal services and illicit advantages in connection with the aforementioned facts. Among the bank accounts inquiry, those opened by Nassim Ould Kaddour in 2009 and closed by him in January 2021.

The Swiss justice confirmed that one of the accounts investigation acquisition augusta refinery still in question was credited with the sum of 12. 248,61 pounds sterling in December 2020, for “sale of titles” and 690,640.49 pounds sterling for “fund reimbursement”, the balance having been, dated December 30, 2020, transferred to the account in euros. As of December 31, 2020, the said account presented a balance of 1,507,480.19 euros.

This amount was subsequently transferred to another account. opened by Nassim Ould Kaddour, with a bank in the United Arab Emirates. For Algeria, Nassim Ould Kaddour has another account, at the Emirates, which served for transfers from illicit activities.

The Swiss justice considered that the documents it will transmit to Algerian justice allow to trace the source. the use of funds which have passed on the disputed account, in particular with regard to the criminal origin of the sum of 54,390,434 USD, part of which could have passed through the bank account in question. Salim telema

investigation acquisition augusta refinery still