· President Ramkawalan declared that “nobody is above the law” and pledged to clean up the nation’s reputation as a centre of financial crime.
· As he started cracking the whip against corruption, a power couple closely associated with the former president Albert Rene and some senior government officials are charged in a $50 million money-laundering case.
The president of Seychelles Wavel Ramkawalan when he came to power in 2020 after defeating the ruling party that was in power for 43 years, had promised to bring to books corrupt officials and businessmen. The former President Albert René, seized power in a coup in 1977 and his party continued to rule until 2020 when the opposition, the Linyon Demokratik Seselwa (LDS), came to power in a landslide victory.
President Ramkawalan declared that “nobody is above the law” and pledged to clean up the nation’s reputation as a centre of financial crime. As he started cracking the whip against corruption, a power couple closely associated with the former president Albert Rene and some senior government officials are charged in a $50 million money-laundering case. The couple, Mukesh Valabhji and his wife, Laura Alcinder Valabhij, were arrested recently on allegations of embezzlement and laundering of money donated to the Seychelles government. A former director-general at the Ministry of Finance, a director of an entity set up to manage state-owned hotels and tourism properties and a senior officer of the Seychelles People’s Defence Forces are among the officials charged for corruption.
