Algeria creates fund for retrieved assets as corruption crackdown continues
Algeria creates fund for retrieved assets as corruption crackdown continues
Algeria has created a fund that will collect assets retrieved from corrupt officials and businessmen as a crackdown on corruption continues.
1 min read
Many officials and businessmen have been jailed over corruption charges in Algeria since 2019 [Getty]
A special fund to collect stolen assets was announced in Algeria on Friday as a crackdown on politicians and businessmen accused of corruption continues.
The finance ministry will administer this fund, with its revenues being made up of money retrieved from abroad and proceeds earned from selling properties confiscated from those accused of corruption.
A government decision this week proposed a settlement that would recover any money looted during the era of ousted former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who ruled between 1999 and 2019 and died a week ago.
Earlier this year, the justice ministry announced that it had seized funds estimated at about $850 million, in addition to vehicles and real estate, as part of investigations into corruption cases during the Bouteflika era.
No actual figure of how much money smuggled abroad during Bouteflika’s two-decade rule exists.
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