Algeria's jailed auto billionaire Mahieddine Tahkout gets 10 more years and loses everything he owns

Algeria's specialised economic and financial crimes tribunal at Sidi M'hamed has delivered its verdict in the latest case against jailed automobile tycoon Mahieddine Tahkout: 10 years of additional imprisonment, a fine of 8 million Algerian dinars and the total confiscation of all his moveable and immoveable assets, his bank accounts, his deposits and investments held abroad including those already frozen by Swiss authorities through international judicial cooperation channels. The court also ordered him to pay 100 million dinars in civil damages to the Algerian public treasury.

The June 2 judgment is the most comprehensive financial punishment Tahkout has received since the wave of corruption prosecutions that swept Algeria after the 2019 Hirak popular movement toppled President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. It is also, notably, a lighter sentence than what prosecutors requested. The public prosecutor had demanded 16 years.

The case centred on money laundering, concealment and dissipation of illicit funds. Specifically, prosecutors alleged that Tahkout used over-invoicing on import and export transactions to transfer funds out of Algeria between 2016 and 2018, accumulating 1.17 billion euros across Swiss bank accounts and French real estate while already serving a prior conviction. Investigators reached those accounts and properties through international judicial cooperation with Swiss and French authorities, who provided documents that prosecutors said directly contradicted Tahkout's account of his financial activities abroad. Tahkout told the court he had worked with a business partner in the tourism sector overseas, purchasing buildings for resale to tourists. The tribunal was not persuaded.

Mahieddine Tahkout was once among the most recognisable businessmen in Algeria. He built his commercial empire during the years of deepest overlap between political power and private capital under Bouteflika, when his Cima Motors group secured the exclusive assembly and distribution licences for Hyundai, Opel, Chevrolet, Suzuki, Fiat, Jeep and Alfa Romeo vehicles across the country. His transport businesses held contracts with state entities. His private university operations added an education dimension to what had become one of the more diversified private conglomerates in North Africa.

The collapse of that empire began in 2019 when the Hirak movement and the subsequent military-backed transition government launched sweeping anti-corruption investigations targeting businessmen who had built their fortunes through political proximity. Tahkout was among the most high-profile. In July 2020, the same Sidi M'hamed tribunal sentenced him to 16 years in prison for corruption and illegally obtaining state advantages. Additional proceedings in subsequent years added further convictions and asset seizures. He has been held at El Meniaa prison, a high-security facility in southern Algeria, throughout the period.

The June 2 verdict extends his total custodial exposure considerably while stripping away any remaining financial assets not already seized in prior proceedings. The confiscation order explicitly covers investments and deposits seized by Swiss authorities under international judicial cooperation, meaning Algeria has effectively coordinated with European jurisdictions to ensure the assets abroad are captured by the domestic judgment.

Tahkout's legal team is expected to appeal the verdict. The original 16-year sentence he received in 2020 was itself handed down in absentia after he failed to appear for proceedings. That sentence has been confirmed through the appeals process and continues to run. The new 10-year term from the June 2 judgment adds to a custodial burden that, in combination with earlier convictions, places him among the most heavily sentenced businessmen in the history of Algeria's post-Hirak anti-corruption drive.