Mauritius issues arrest warrant against former central bank governor

Police in Mauritius have issued an order for the arrest of the Indian Ocean island’s former central bank governor in connection to an inquiry into a conspiracy to defraud case.

Former central bank governor, Harvesh Kumar Seegolam, was out of the country and would be arrested as soon as he returned, police said in a notice in Mauritius newspapers on Sunday.

They provided no more details on the nature of the case.

Seegolam has yet to comment.

The action by the police anti-money-laundering unit is the first significant one from the government of Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam, who said last week the outgoing government had falsified the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), budget deficit and public debt figures for years.

In a report issued to parliament, Ramgoolam also accused the central bank of printing money to fund the government’s Mauritius Investment Corporation (MIC), set up in 2020 to help companies deal with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.