(Bloomberg) -- Mauritius’ former central bank governor Harvesh Seegolam was granted bail on Saturday after a provisional charge of conspiracy to defraud was lodged in court.
The former governor “has been released on parole for the day,” Ravi Yerrigadoo, his lawyer, told reporters in the capital, Port Louis. “Mr Seegolam has undertaken to comply with all conditions” set by the court with regard to his bail.
He declined to comment further as the inquiry is ongoing.
Seegolam was arrested on Friday on his return to the Indian Ocean island nation from Dubai. He was questioned till late into the night and detained prior to his appearance in court.
The investigation pertains to a disbursement of 45 million rupees ($946,000) to a high-risk company by the Mauritius Investment Corp, a subsidiary of the bank, news website defimedia.info reported on Friday, without saying where it obtained the information. Last month, new central bank chief Rama Sithanen said that the entity secured the funds before the general elections, even though the board of the MIC opposed the transaction and related conditions were not met.
Seegolam, who headed the Bank of Mauritius from March 2020 to November 2024, is the first casualty of an audit of public finances under the new government of Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam. The premier has been critical of the MIC, adding that the organization exposed the central bank to significant credit risk and losses.
“Those who have run the country for the last 10 years have taken the country to the precipice,” Ramgoolam, who obtained a fourth mandate in the November elections, said in his new year’s address. “One by one, they will be held to account regardless of the level at which they exercised their power, but it will done within the framework of the law.”
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