PORT LOUIS – Mauritius’s former finance minister was arrested yesterday over a second fraud case, two days after having been released on bail over another affair, police said. 

The latest arrest of Renganaden Padayachy concerns alleged fraud against the Mauritius Investment Corporation (MIC), created in 2020 by the Bank of Mauritius to support businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic, said police.

It was carried out at the request of the Financial Crimes Commission (FCC).

In this case, police are investigating the MIC’s payment of approximately US$1 million to Menlo Parks Ltd/Pulse Analytics, a polling company known for its political analyses on social media, said police sources.

Officers searched two properties belonging to the former minister, who will be taken to court for questioning, said a source close to the investigation. Padayachy had already been charged with fraud over a previous case linked to the MIC, but was released on bail on Monday after five days in detention.

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 US$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. – Nampa/AFP