Rhodes Oil Plant traffic: the SAMIFIN believing to have got a grip on the financial network

The Rhodes Oil Plant case keeps on topping the headlines. Now the SAMIFIN or the financial Information Service is putting its revelations under the spotlight. As a result of investigations led  between January 2008 and October 10th, 2009, this governmental Service in charge of purification of  Madagascar’s financial sector and fight against international criminality reported that 32 billion ariary have been absorbed by the money laundering circuit. 

According to the Judicial Director of the SAMIFIN, “Everything begins with the transfer of a significant amount of money to an account belonging to an exporter owning a legal export license. Then, money is been shared out between individuals in charge of wood collection”. Thierry Ravalomanda confirms that “exporters are paying woodcutters”, in contradiction with the thesis of fallen wood collection by peasants. The illegal exploitation of wild forests, partly including natural reserves, is deliberately organized in view of  supplying the existing demand 

The SAMIFIN led investigations do not progress for so much since the original source of funds remains unknown. The service specified, however, that the exporters suspected of Rhodes Oil Plant case related money laundering are owning bank accounts abroad, and a home base in Paris for some of them. “These are Malagasy corporations in legal terms, but with the presence of acting foreign nationals”. They would actually be serving as cover up to an illegal and well running commercial process. 

The reported breaches of the law are custom frauds and illegal exports. The concerned economic operators are basically suspected of illegal woodcut. The SAMIFIN is reporting, besides, failure to repatriate returns and corruption. Abuse cases have also been noticed in the indictments. 

The SAMIFIN has previously been screamed at by some apparently clean operators who got their bank accounts frozen. Jean Claude Razaranaina, the State Service’s General Manager, has linked the measure to the reported differences between corporation made declarations about transaction volumes and the bank accounts. In addition to this very serious fraud indictment, non repatriation of returns is already a mistake. The SAMIFIN can obtain bank accounts freezing orders from the Judicial, and extend the banking operation ban period from 02 to 08 days. 14 operators are been investigated in the Rhodes Oil Plant case. 

Money laundering has appeared even more visible through the failure to declare returns directly transferred to foreign accounts. And the circuit does not end there. According to the SAMIFIN, funds are been reinvested to import consumption products for the Malagasy market. The financial sector investigator is more suspicious than ever. The service is striving to unveil further more frauds concerning these commercial activities. After money laundering, fake or inaccurate custom declarations are coming next.