The defense panel of former shareholders of the New Bank of Mauritania (NBM) published updates and proposals following press releases from the Central Bank and its legal adviser, which refer explicitly to certain acts and events to justify the arrest of former shareholders.

According to the lawyers, the Memorandum of Understanding of July 20, 2019 between the shareholders of NBM and the BCM should serve as the basis for the complaint filed on June 14, 2019 by the BCM against the defendants, closed by the Memorandum of Understanding of July 20, 2019 and then suddenly resurrected in March 2021.
The Memorandum of Understanding recalls that, faced with the difficulties of NBM as noted by the inspectors and which appear in its appendices themselves, the Central Bank had the choice between placing NBM under provisional administration, its outright liquidation or its reorganization in concert with the shareholders. In the Protocol, the Central Bank chose the option that was most consistent with the truth of the facts: the recovery of the bank, whose difficulties were very relative and certainly not related to any economic crime whatsoever.
“Criminal action against the shareholders was therefore self-evident, especially as the Parties to the Agreement had expressly referred to the Commercial Court any dispute that arose in the context of or during its implementation, that is to say any dispute concerning the commitments of shareholders to put the bank back in a normal financial situation as well as those of the Central Bank of the accompany the recovery process throughout the recovery process,” the press release reads.
In addition, the College of Lawyers of Former Shareholders referred to the contract for the transfer of NBM to Westbridge; the portage companies and the so-called