TAOFIK Ibrahimi, former chairman and chief executive of Moroccan shipping company Comanav, has been arrested on suspicion of fraud during his tenure at the former state-owned group, according to Moroccan press reports.

Website Yabiladi said that Ibrahimi and several other former senior managers of Comanav were arrested by Moroccan police last Friday, as were the secretaries general of a dockers¡¯ and seafarers¡¯ union.

Ibrahimi, who was head of Comanav from 2001 to 2010, is credited with having overseen the privatisation of the company in 2007, which resulted in its sale to France¡¯s CMA CGM. CMA CGM kept the company¡¯s freight business but sold its passenger activity to Morocco¡¯s Comarit in 2009.

He was reported to have tried recently to mount a takeover of Comarit, which is currently faced with grave financial difficulties which have halted its sailings between Morocco and southern Europe since January.

The web site of Morocco¡¯s L¡¯Economiste magazine reported yesterday that Ibrahimi and his fellow detainees were still in custody following a 24-hour extension of the initial 48 hour period of custody allowed by the Moroccan penal code.
Links from IHS Fairplay World Shipping Directory online:
Comarit SA (Compagnie Maritime Marocco Norvegienne)
CMA CGM SA (The French Line)