He is accused of having circumvented American sanctions to transfer 5 Boeing 777s to Iran: the tycoon Mamy Ravatomanga, ally of the former Malagasy president, will be tried next week

Madagascar tycoon until the overthrow of his ally, President Andry Rajoelina, by the military in October 2025, Mamy Ravatomanga is the most renowned of the accused in the resounding affair of the Boeing planes transferred a year ago to Iran via Madagascar, judged from Tuesday October 27 in Antananarivo, the Malagasy capital. This 57-year-old businessman made his fortune by founding the Sodiat group in 1990, a conglomerate covering almost everything: automobile distribution, aviation, private security, media, construction, health, real estate, hotels, tourism, golf and even the lucrative vanilla sector. Ranked in 2017 by Forbes as the second richest person in Madagascar, he is today being prosecuted for money laundering and influence peddling by the Antananarivo anti-corruption center.

He has also been detained in Mauritius since his flight the day after the military rallied to the demonstrators a year ago. Mamy Ravatomanga is exactly accused of having facilitated the transfer of five American Boeing 777 planes to Iran. Indeed, provisional registration certificates provided by Malagasy civil aviation allowed the aircraft to transit last year to Iran, where they are now registered in the name of an Iranian company, despite multiple American sanctions since 2018.

The testimony of another defendant in this case, Singh Khushwinder, suspected of being the real owner of the Malagasy company used to register the planes, accuses him of having received 5 million euros in the operation, according to the referral order. A Malagasy permit to fly in international airspace Before the operation, the planes belonged to a company registered in Florida, Ion Aviation, and were stationed in China. Everything leads Malagasy justice to believe that their registration in Madagascar in 2025 only served to allow them to fly in international airspace to reach Iran in July 2025.

Because the Boeing 777s have never reached the Indian Ocean island. The five aircraft are now registered in the name of the Iranian company Mahan Air, according to the register of the specialized site Planespotters. Two of them are specifically targeted by US Treasury sanctions announced in April in a press release.

The latter accuses Mahan Air of being “involved in the acquisition and transport of drone systems and weapons to and from Iran”. Following an investigation carried out by the Mauritian anti-corruption agency (FCC) and the American FBI, the Mauritius anti-corruption watchdog assured, according to a court decision of October 12, that it "has witness statements, digital evidence as well as recordings to support the allegation of corruption". Meeting in a Novotel and trade in lychees The Malagasy referral order also mentions photos of a meeting at the Novotel in Antananarivo in which Mamy Ravatomanga allegedly participated.

According to the anti-corruption center, the then Minister of Transport, Valéry Ramonjavelo, the Director General of Civil Aviation of Madagascar, Singh Khushwinder, as well as the Iranian national Hamid Arabnejad took part. The latter has been targeted by American sanctions since 2013. The American Treasury describes him as the general director of the Iranian company and accuses him of "supervising Mahan Air's efforts to circumvent sanctions".

Machine-translated from French