Bet365 case : Yerrigadoo OUT, Gobin IN

The Lepep government is again under the spotlight with another scandal unfurling. After Raj Dayal resigning from his post as Minister of Environment, Roshi Bhadain resigning as MP and Minister of Good Governance, it is now the turn of the Attorney General Ravi Yerrigadoo to step down as he faces allegations of being embroiled in a money laundering case.

The whole affair broke out on Monday 11 September after the circulation of a letter, bearing the header of the Attorney’s office and the signature of Ravi Yerrigadoo. In the letter, the former Attorney General gave the green light and personally intervened to allow Husein Abdool Rahim to have access to his earnings from an online betting company abroad, namely Bet365 UK. However, Husein Abdool Rahim is being prosecuted in a fraud case and he faces an objection to departure.

On Tuesday 12 September, Husein Abdool Rahim swore an affidavit at the Supreme Court in which he accused Ravi Yerrigadoo of having participated in ‘illicit activities’. In his affidavit, the gambler described Ravi Yerrigadoo's “alleged connections” to open accounts abroad for the transfer of large sums of money that he (the gambler) would have earned as winnings from the online betting company.

Since then, the case plunged the Attorney General and the Lepep government into an embarrassing situation. After several opposition members and the leader of the Labour Party, Navin Ramgoolam, demanded Ravi Yerrigadoo’s resignation, the situation became more tensed at the Government House. Indeed on Wednesday, the Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth spoke publicly about the matter at a press meet. He asked the Attorney General to step down while the case is investigated and until he clears his name.

“I reviewed the allegations against him and spoke to him. Since he is the Attorney General, I have asked him to resign to allow the investigation to be carried out in a transparent and independent manner and to focus on allegations concerning him,” expressed Pravind Jugnauth, at the Treasury Building. Pravind Jugnauth then added: “I must say that he was totally in agreement with what I proposed. In the meantime, I appoint Maneesh Gobin as Attorney General.” Indeed, following the decision of the Prime Minister, it is Maneesh Gobin, deputy of the MSM, who took over the post of Attorney General since Wednesday. 

On the other hand, Husein Abdool Rahim also filed a complaint, in the presence of his lawyers Ashley Hurhangee and Yash Bhadain, against the Attorney General on Wednesday at the Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC). The gambler handed over documents to investigators from the ICAC and requested for the opening of an investigation. In his complaint, Husein Abdool Rahim explained that the reason he decided to speak out was that he feared “political repression, reprisals and attempts to make false allegations against him.”

Ravi Yerrigadoo on his side held a press conference on Wednesday night. “My lawyers have studied all the elements of the case. They are unanimous that doubt is not permitted. The allegations against me are false and farfetched,” he said, just after resigning from his post. The former Attorney-General maintained that the allegations made by Husein Abdool Rahim against him, speaking of a money laundering case in the affidavit sworn Tuesday, are unfounded. He gives further explanation of this in two “deux mises en demeure” that he sent to La Sentinelle and Le Mauricien.

In the documents annexed to the affidavit, which the accuser claims to be written by Ravi Yerrigadoo, the latter maintains that: “All the manuscripts that are attributed to me do not emanate from me.” He asserts that writing is not his, nor has he “participated in the preparation of such manuscripts in any way”. Ravi Yerrigadoo also stated that all WhatsApp exchanges that have been published in the press do not “belong to him”. The former Attorney General also states that he never communicated with Bet365 UK nor did he in any way help Husein Abdool Rahim to open a bank account “whether in Mauritius or elsewhere”.

For Ravi Yerrigadoo, it is “not a farewell, but a goodbye.” The purpose of his resignation, he said, was to enable the institutions to conduct their investigations independently and to prevent perceptions of interference.

On Wednesday evening, in a communiqué issued by the State House, it was announced that MP Maneesh Gobin will be not only the new Attorney-General, but will also be Minister of Justice and Institutional Reforms. This takes over the responsibilities of Sudhir Sesungkur, who will now only act as Minister of Good Governance and Financial Services. The swearing-in ceremony took place on Thursday morning at the State House, Reduit.

In a brief statement to the press after the swearing-in ceremony, Maneesh Gobin thanked the Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth for “the trust placed in me.” He claimed that the circumstances in which he was appointed Attorney General after Ravi Yerrigadoo was called to "step down" in the wake of the Bet365 affair are “special.” “The State must continue to function. It is under these circumstances that the Prime Minister has placed these responsibilities on my shoulders,” he said.