Bramer Bank of Mauritius shares suspended after license revoked ‘in the public interest’

Christina Vilbrin, Bloomberg

“Strong evidence that BBCL is engaged in a Ponzi scheme which exceeds 25 billion rupees” ($690 million) - Prime Minister Anerood Jugnauth.

TRADING in Bramer Banking Corp., a lender based in Port Louis, was suspended by Mauritius’s stock exchange after the country’s central bank revoked the company’s banking license.
Dealings in the securities will be halted until further notice, according to a statement on the website of the Stock Exchange of Mauritius on Friday. The Bank of Mauritius pulled Bramer’s license “in the public interest,” it said in a statement a day earlier.

A spokesman for British American Investment Co., which owns Bramer, who didn’t want to be identified, said by phone the company may issue a statement or hold a press conference later on Friday.
The central bank pulled Bramer’s license “following strong evidence that BBCL is engaged in a Ponzi scheme which exceeds 25 billion rupees” ($690 million), Prime Minister Anerood Jugnauth told reporters in Port Louis, the capital, on Friday. A special desk will be set up in the Bank of Mauritius to give Bramer clients information on their deposits and an investigation is underway into what he called an “unprecedented financial scandal.”
The central bank of the Indian Ocean island nation told Bramer about a “number of significant deficiencies” that it found during an on-site examination between Jan. 22 and Feb. 20, it said in the statement. Bramer had “large withdrawals of deposits” that affected its liquidity and capital, the regulator said.
After Bramer’s license was revoked, the Financial Services Commission of Mauritius appointed Andre Bonieux and Mushtaq Oosman of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as conservators of BAI Co., an insurance company also owned by British American Investment, “to safeguard the interests of policyholders,” the FSC said in a statement on its website.