Mehdi Hijaouy, the fraudster trying to cleanse his image with the help of “Le Monde”

History repeats itself, but no one is fooled anymore. After abusing the trust of dozens of victims in Morocco, Europe, and North America, Mehdi Hijaouy is attempting a new ploy: to portray himself as a victim of an alleged feud between Moroccan intelligence services. To do so, he has secured space in the columns of Le Monde, using the newspaper as a megaphone to polish a reputation permanently tarnished by years of fraud, manipulation, and forgery.

The article published on July 17, 2025, in the French daily claims to reveal that Mehdi Hijaouy is the victim of a plot orchestrated by the Moroccan secret services. Yet behind the staged narrative of a “former official” forced into exile lies a notorious criminal, dismissed from the services in 2010 for serious misconduct. Far from being an elite agent, Hijaouy was merely a low-level operative whose main talent lay in flattery, deceit, and manipulation to open doors.

Since his dismissal, he has carefully built a fictional persona: “intelligence adviser,” “close to the Palace,” “privileged intermediary.” With these fake titles, he orchestrated large-scale scams, promising investments, authorizations, residency permits, and access to the corridors of power—in exchange for large sums of money, which he then disappeared. The case files are damning: multiple complaints, material evidence, corroborating testimonies, and even an international arrest warrant.

And what does Hijaouy do? He activates his contacts in the French media and his accomplices—such as Ali Lmrabet and Hicham Jerando—to flip the narrative: he is no longer the perpetrator, but the victim. No longer the manipulator, but the persecuted.

This role reversal is not only indecent toward the real victims, but also dangerous for journalistic credibility. Le Monde, by lending its voice to such a compromised individual without rigorous fact-checking of legal matters, becomes an instrument of attempted media whitewashing. It blurs the line between information and manipulation, between journalism and the propaganda of a fraudster.