Algeria's jailed tycoon Mahieddine Tahkout faces new trial over a billion-euro fortune hidden in Switzerland and France

Mahieddine Tahkout, the jailed Algerian automobile mogul who built his fortune assembling Hyundai vehicles and running bus fleets for state transport contracts under President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, has appeared before Algeria's specialised anti-corruption tribunal on new charges that allege he concealed more than a billion euros across Swiss bank accounts and French real estate while serving an existing prison sentence.

Tahkout appeared before the tribunal of the financial crimes pole at Sidi M'hamed in Algiers to face charges in a new case linked to money laundering, illegal foreign currency transfers and the alleged possession of bank accounts exceeding a billion euros in Switzerland, along with property in Lille, Geneva and Paris. The new case runs in parallel with the multiple convictions he has already received and adds a cross-border dimension that Algerian anti-corruption authorities have been building through international investigative cooperation.

At the hearing, the tribunal president confronted Tahkout with evidence from international investigations attesting to his holding of companies in Switzerland, alongside questions about wire transfers made between 2016 and 2018. Tahkout maintained his line of defence throughout, denying any money laundering or illicit capital transfers. He acknowledged the existence of a single active account, reaffirming his position that the funds in question originated from a legitimate debt. He claimed a business partner had worked with him in the tourism sector abroad, purchasing buildings to resell to tourists.

The claim did not appear to satisfy the tribunal. Investigators say his method of moving funds out of Algeria involved over-invoicing on import and export transactions, a technique that creates a paper trail showing legitimate commercial activity while allowing the difference between the real and declared values to accumulate offshore. International cooperation between Algeria's financial authorities and Swiss and French counterparts has produced documents the prosecution says contradict Tahkout's account.

Tahkout was already serving a 16-year prison sentence handed down in July 2020 for corruption and illegally obtaining state advantages during the Bouteflika era. That case centred on how his Cima Motors group, which distributed Hyundai, Opel, Chevrolet, Suzuki, Fiat, Jeep and Alfa Romeo vehicles across Algeria, obtained its public transport contracts and vehicle assembly licence through politically connected channels. A subsequent case produced an additional sentence. The judgment in the hidden wealth case required Tahkout and his associates to repay the state 309 billion dinars, approximately 2 billion euros, in damages.

He began as a small trader in Réghaïa in the 1970s before moving into bus transport, eventually building a fleet that served university and urban routes across multiple Algerian provinces and charging state transport companies for daily rentals. His transition from bus operator to vehicle assembler came in 2015 when his group acquired the Hyundai assembly licence previously held by Issad Rebrab's Cevital group.

The new proceedings at Sidi M'hamed represent Algeria's attempt to trace and recover the portion of Tahkout's fortune that was moved beyond its borders before his arrest in 2019. Whether the Algerian state can obtain the cooperation of Swiss and French authorities to freeze and repatriate those assets will determine how much of the billion-euro figure alleged in the new case can actually be recovered.