Since the beginning of his first term in 2019, the president, who is running for re-election on September 7, has made the recovery of embezzled public money a priority. He has been highlighting this during his election campaign, even though the operation has so far come to nothing.
This is one of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune ‘s main commitments since the beginning of his first term. He reiterated it on August 15, during a televised intervention counting towards the electoral campaign for the presidential election of September 7: the recovery of property and real estate and financial assets held by former oligarchs abroad is, and remains, one of his main priorities. But five years after the start, in the summer of 2019, of the major trials for corruption and money laundering of these businessmen, many of whom are now serving heavy prison sentences, where is this operation to recover these assets abroad?
Big bluff?
Because behind the satisfied declarations, there is great vagueness. Sometimes, great bluff. Without detailing the process, candidate Tebboune thus indicates that 4,500 billion dinars (around 30 billion euros) of credits and bank loans had been granted to these oligarchs during the last three terms (from 2004 to 2019) of his predecessor. During the brief period, between June and August 2017, when he was Prime Minister, he had already tried to recover part of these credits. Without success, especially since he was quickly ousted from his post due, in particular, to this war launched against the oligarchs. The assessment made by the candidate president therefore mainly concerns what has been done since his election in 2019. During this first term, he claims that 51 industrial units built with public aid were recovered by the State, following the final conviction of their owners.
Regarding real estate scattered abroad, Abdelmadjid Tebboune claims in particular that the Algerian state recovered a hotel owned in Spain by an Algerian businessman, thanks to the help of local authorities. Although he always refrains from mentioning the name of this businessman, the president alludes to Ali Haddad, former CEO of the ETRHB Group, who acquired the five-star El Palace Hotel in Barcelona for $68 million in 2011.
During one of his trials in June 2020, Ali Haddad claimed to have bought the hotel for €54 million with loans from Spanish banks. However, since its acquisition in 2011, the establishment’s statutes have been amended many times, so much so that its name no longer appears in the statutes as they are filed today with the BOE, the national agency of the Official State Gazette.
The imbroglio of the Palace Hotel in Barcelona
Today, El Palace Hotel Barcelona is owned by Radia Bouziane Allaoui, through her company Royal Blue Bird SL, of which she is the sole owner. The palace, one of the most exclusive hotel establishments in Spain, whose new director, Pedro Rodríguez Madrigal, was appointed in March 2024, continues to offer its services to its wealthy clients.
How then could the Algerian state have recovered this hotel when it is no longer the property of Ali Haddad? Even assuming that the latter would still be the owner, the request for restitution on the part of the Algerian justice system would take at least ten years of legal battles between the different parties involved, the owner(s) in particular.
The alleged recovery of this hotel is therefore akin to a smokescreen whose purpose would be above all to hide the negative results of this entire operation of recovering assets abroad. Here again, transparency and clarity are lacking. This does not prevent Abdelmadjid Tebboune from affirming that the Algerian justice system has sent 285 letters rogatory to 32 countries in which these former oligarchs are suspected of holding assets. He adds that 755 accounts have been identified there. “The banking procedures are complicated,” he further specified on August 15. “We hope to return all the people’s money.”
Last year, a small glimmer of hope came from Switzerland, when the Swiss justice system responded favorably to the letters rogatory targeting Said Bouteflika, the brother of the former president sentenced to twelve years in prison. The Swiss magistrates transmitted information on various transfers that he received in a bank account in Geneva, including one from an account in Kuwait. The total amount of the assets of the brother of the former head of state is estimated at 35 million dollars.
