More revelations on Maati Monjib’s fortune

RABAT - Morocco’s most followed news website “Chouf TV” made Monday new revelations about the fortune of university lecturer and human rights activist Maati Monjib who is being investigated for money laundering.

In his latest editorial, published on the chouf.tv website, Abou Wael Al Riffi detailed Monjib’s financial and real estate assets.

With gross a monthly salary that doesn’t exceed 11,800 dirhams ($1290), columnist Riffi wondered how Monjib acquired all his muli-million-dirham assets.

Riffi claimed that set up the Ibn Rochd Centre, a public limited company, following his return from France.

The Centre opened two bank accounts, which were funded over the course of four years with 4.7 million dirhams ($510,000). This money coming mainly from transfers from abroad was then transferred to Monjib’s personal account and his family members’.

On November 14, 2014, Monjib transferred one million dirhams ($110,000) to his sister's account. Thereafter, he transferred Dh400,000 to his own account, according to Riffi.

Between  2009 and 2019, Monjib received Dh7.91 million ($864,000) from the the funds destined to the Ibn Rochd Centre and the Moroccan Association of Investigative Journalism, an amount that he wouldn’t be able to save with his university salary, revealed Riffi.

The columnist wondered how Monjib, who claims to be from a poor countryside family, acquired 34,840 square metres of land over the last six years whereas his father left him along with his eight brothers and sisters eight hectares of land.

Riffi questioned Monjib’s sister, who was his partner in the Ibn Rochd Centre, how she acquired two flats in Benslimane worth Dh1.2 million ($130,000) less than a week after buying another flat in the same town for Dh400,000 ($43,700) besides a 500 m² plot of land bought with two other people and for which she spent half a million dirhams ($546,000) with a monthly salary of Dh5,000 ($546) from the Centre for seven years.

Riffi’s latest revelations are putting more pressure on Monjib to justify his fortune which the columnist said would be impossible to build up with the lecturer’s salary.