Moroccan police have requested the launch of an international arrest warrant against a Canadian-Moroccan whom they consider to be the “blackmailer” of an extortion scheme which would have caused around 2,000 victims from Quebec.
Abdelmejid Tounarti, who recently lived in the Capitale-Nationale region, is described by Moroccan authorities as a “professional in blackmail and defamation” in a judgment sentencing one of his alleged accomplices to three years in prison in Morocco.
“All of this is unfounded, it’s lies, based on the testimony of a liar,” reacted Mr. Tounarti, whom we reached by telephone at a number with a Quebec area code.
The 46-year-old Canadian-Moroccan has been operating the Facebook page Lfercha for several months, whose name means “the scandal” in Arabic.
Described as a “news website” administered from Quebec, the page was used to carry out “acts of blackmail, defamation as well as threats of abuse and invasion of privacy” against approximately 2,000 entrepreneurs and civil servants living in Morocco, wrote the judgment in Arabic, translated using the Google Translate tool.
The scheme involves the use of hawala – an informal money exchange system that escapes tax oversight (see box).
Documents from the Moroccan National Judicial Police Brigade indicate that Mr. Tounarti is the subject of a “national search” for arrest every time he enters Morocco. The documents also mention a request for an international arrest warrant by the Moroccan authorities.
Quebec collateral victims
The money transfer mechanism that would benefit Mr. Tounarti is described in detail in a Moroccan judgment sentencing a Canadian-Moroccan, Redouane Benallal, to three years in prison for his participation in the extortion scheme.
Mr. Benallal was “caught red-handed” last December trying to collect money in Morocco from a businessman from whom Tounarti allegedly asked for 250,000 dirhams (C$33,600) in exchange for the non-publication of sensitive information.
This victim immediately denounced the scheme to Moroccan police officers, who found on Mr. Benallal a Quebec driving license and 20,000 dirhams during his arrest, court documents indicate.
According to the investigation, the blackmail money was paid by Mr. Benallal in dirhams into the Moroccan bank account of one of his friends who lives in Montreal, Mohammed Rmili.
Subsequently, Mr. Rmili said he met “four or five times” with Abdelmejid Tounarti to give him $5,000 in cash, but without knowing why. “They told me it was to import and export food products, like olive oil. They didn’t give me any more details, I just wanted to be of service,” he says.
Mr. Tounarti denies having received these sums from Mohammed Rmili.
Mr. Rmili’s Moroccan bank accounts were frozen as part of the Moroccan investigation.
Complaint to the SPVM
In recent days, Redouane Benallal’s son, Youssef, filed a complaint with the SPVM, claiming to be himself a victim of extortion by Abdelmejid Tounarti.
He said he provided the SPVM with bank statements from BMO showing that he personally paid $7,800 to Mr. Tounarti. “A few weeks before being arrested, my father asked me to transfer this money to Tounarti without telling me why. He was very stressed and told me it was complicated,” says Youssef Benallal.
Mr. Tounarti hung up when The Press questioned him about these transactions.
Youssef Benallal claims that once his father was incarcerated, Abdelmejid Tounarti demanded 220,000 dirhams from his father’s partner, who also lives in Morocco, by threatening to publish information about him on Lfercha. This claim is corroborated by a text message from Mr. Tounarti’s Canadian phone, a screenshot of which Youssef provided to The Press.
PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, THE PRESS
Youssef Benallal, who claims to be a victim of extortion by Abdelmejid Tounarti
It was explained to me that the police cannot do much because my father is not in a position to testify and my stepmother is not in Canada. They just have to call the Moroccan police and they will have the whole picture of the situation. [Abdelmejid] Tounarti is the subject of hundreds of complaints in Morocco.
Youssef Benallal, alleged victim
Last FebruaryThe Press reported the case of another Canadian-Moroccan from the Gatineau region who had his passport seized and prohibited from leaving Morocco for nearly three months. This person, who transferred money to Mr. Tounarti from his Desjardins account, ended up being exonerated by the Moroccan authorities after demonstrating that he had become involved in the scheme without his knowledge.
According to our information, this man refused to file a complaint with the Canadian police authorities once he returned to Canada.
Read “From Quebec, he escapes Moroccan justice”
What is hawala?
Hawala is an informal method of fund transfers, widely used by members of diasporas, to circumvent limits on national currency transfers and evade the gaze of tax authorities. It is based on trust, but may contravene the Proceeds of Crime Laundering and Terrorist Financing Act.
A person in country “A” who wishes to transfer a sum to another person in country “B” finds a trusted intermediary who has access to a bank account in each of the two countries. As this intermediary travels from one country to another and needs liquidity in both countries, he benefits from transferring money between different individuals who are in each of them. Proof that the transfer has indeed been made is generally done by photos of transactions sent to instant messaging applications such as Messenger Or WhatsApp.
Denis Meunier, fraud prevention consultant and money laundering specialist, points out, however, that anyone who participates in a hawala without being registered as a “money services business” with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Center of Canada (FINTRAC) risks up to $250,000 in penalties and two years in prison.
“Hawala can be done legitimately, as long as we are registered with FINTRAC and submit to all kinds of obligations,” he insists.