Two days after being freed on bail for another affair, Mauritius’ former finance minister was arrested on Wednesday in connection with a second fraud case, according to police.
According to police, Renganaden Padayachy’s most recent arrest relates to alleged fraud against the Mauritius Investment Corporation (MIC), which was established by the Bank of Mauritius in 2020 to assist businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Financial Crimes Commission (FCC) requested that it be done.
According to police sources, the MIC paid Menlo Parks Ltd/Pulse Analytics, a polling firm well-known for its political analysis on social media, about $1 million in this case.
According to a source close to the inquiry, officers searched the former minister’s two houses on Wednesday. He will be transported to court to be questioned.
Padayachy was released on bail on Monday following five days in custody, despite having already been accused with fraud in a prior case connected to the MIC.
He and Harvesh Seegolam, the ex-Governor of the Central Bank of Mauritius, are accused of having artificially inflated the valuation of a company, EastCoast Hotel Investment, in which MIC had invested. That investment lost approximately $6.7 million for the MIC.
Seegolam, also charged with fraud in the EastCoast Hotel Investment case, was arrested and then released on bail in January in the Menlo Parks Ltd/Pulse Analytics case, for which Padayachy was not initially charged.
Last year, a coalition led by Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam comfortably won parliamentary elections, regaining power in the Indian Ocean state after a decade in opposition.
The campaign was marked by concerns about the political and economic stability of one of Africa’s wealthiest stable democracies.
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