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Update: Saturday, 15 May 2010    

Defence accuses at Al-Khalifa Bank’s trial

Authorities had been covering bank’s violations three years long
Monday Jan 15 2007.

How is it that such a big scandal had only been discovered a few years ago? Who ordered Inspection Commissions to start working on Al-Khalifa file? Where are the reports issued by Inspection Commissions which had found out about several violations, as those against Al-Khalifa Bank’s regulation itself?

These are some of the questions asked by a number of lawyers representing the defence in Al Khalifa Bank case as Lawyers Mokrane Ait Larbi and Khaled Berghal, at Criminal court in Blida, yesterday, to Mr Mohamed Djellab, an administrator appointed to manage Al-Khalifa Bank before it was closed.

To the defence’s interrogations, Mr Djallab just replied “Only justice can answer such questions”. The defence focused on issues related to legal and administrative violations as regard the creation of Al-Khalifa Bank, yesterday, where some names benefiting from the bank’s money were revealed. Infringements started as early as the first days of Al-Khalifa Bank’s creation, underlines the defence adding it will explain these violations soon.

The lawyers told Al Khabar the first inspection occurred on March 22, 1999, it lasted three months and reported, inter alia, a breach of article 139 of Credit and Money Law relative to change of Al-Khalifa Bank’s managers and concession regarding shares. The change took place without authorisation from the Bank of Algeria’s governor.

The second inspection was on March 9, 2003 and lasted three months too. It was a full inspection in which the bank proved to have not made essential rectifications based on the first report, although it had committed to do so. It also found out the bank did not give all the required accounts to the Inspection Commissions. A report was then sent to the Bank of Algeria’s governor who informed Abdelmoumen Khalifa (chairman, main accused in the affair) who had promised to settle the situation of the bank. What he didn’t. That was discovered by a report issued by a third commission that started its mission on September 5, 2000.

Inspectors noted the increasing number of infringements and violations by Al-Khalifa Bank as concern management and accountability. And inspection operations succeeded until it reached ten. The last one, carried out on September 22, 2002, reported that accountability and computer system of Al-Khalifa Bank was efficient. Such anarchy lasted three years, so why waiting all this period of time, wondered lawyer Mokrane Ait Larbi

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