Malagasy tycoon Mamy Ravatomanga's wife says his jailing in Mauritius is "political elimination"

The wife of Malagasy tycoon Mamy Ravatomanga says the money laundering case that has kept him in a Mauritius prison for nearly a year is a campaign of "political elimination" against him and his family.

Haingo Ravatomanga made the claim in an interview with Mauritian radio station Top FM, reported on Oct. 9 by the Malagasy daily Midi Madagasikara. It was the family's most detailed public defence since Ravatomanga, head of the Sodiat group, was arrested by Mauritius's Financial Crimes Commission on Oct. 24, 2025.

Her comments come days before a Mauritian magistrate is due to rule on his request for bail. Magistrate Mohammad Ilfaaz Farook Nathire of the Bail and Remand Court is scheduled to deliver his decision on Oct. 12.

"There is a time to stay silent and there is a time to speak," she said in the interview.

Claims about Sodiat

Haingo Ravatomanga, who founded the AFF charity in Madagascar, also attacked the court-appointed administrator now running parts of her husband's business empire.

She said Sodiat workers had been paid late and that some had been placed on technical unemployment, a form of temporary layoff. Photographs that she said showed violence against employees were displayed during the broadcast. Billionaires.Africa could not verify the images or her account.

Madagascar's anti-corruption court, the Pôle Anti-Corruption, placed several Sodiat subsidiaries under provisional judicial administration earlier this year and ordered about 30 bank accounts frozen. The group, which spans import and export, logistics, property and agriculture, employs about 4,000 people.

She said a case brought in France had been dropped by the country's financial prosecutor, the Parquet National Financier, and had now been revived by the Mauritian commission. The French office opened an investigation in 2016 into property Ravatomanga allegedly bought outside Paris through offshore companies, and closed it in 2023. In April 2026 it formed a joint investigation team with the Financial Crimes Commission.

The flight from Madagascar

Ravatomanga was for years one of the most powerful businessmen in Madagascar and a close ally and financier of former President Andry Rajoelina. He flew to Mauritius in October 2025, as youth-led protests swept Madagascar and shortly before a military takeover ended Rajoelina's rule.

His wife said Christian Ntsay, the former prime minister, warned the family that her husband's life was in danger, and that they had about 30 minutes to leave. She said the plane they took off in did not have flight authorisation because of the rush.

The family chose Mauritius, she said, because their daughter lives there with her family and because they had done business on the island for 30 years. She said they felt safe there.

The case in Mauritius

The Financial Crimes Commission has charged Ravatomanga provisionally with two counts of money laundering and one of conspiracy, over transactions allegedly carried out on Oct. 14 and Oct. 24, 2025. It has obtained a court order attaching about 7.3 billion Mauritian rupees, about $156 million. That includes 6.45 billion rupees held by companies under his management and 858 million rupees in his personal accounts.

He is being held at Melrose, a high-security prison, and has spent more than 350 days in custody without trial.

The commission opposes his release. Its lawyers told the court the risks that he would flee, interfere with witnesses or tamper with evidence were real. In August an investigator told the court that the businessman had planned to leave the island by sea, citing data from a phone belonging to an associate. His lawyer, Khushal Lobine, called that "unfounded conjecture."

Testifying by video link from his cell on Sept. 9, Ravatomanga denied all the accusations. "I have nothing to hide. I have a clean criminal record," he said. He told the court he had serious health problems, including a fully blocked artery, and offered to live at his daughter's home in Mauritius under any conditions the court set.

He also faces three international arrest warrants issued in Madagascar this year, over alleged fraud in lychee exports and corruption in the mining sector.