Gambiaj.com – (DAKAR, Senegal) – A Senegalese financial crimes court has acquitted Gambian businesswoman Ajie Sera Trera of fraud charges linked to an alleged debt of 673.8 million CFA francs owed to her Senegalese supplier, Modou Ndiaye, in a case that highlighted the risks and complexities of cross-border trade between The Gambia and Senegal.
The ruling was delivered on Thursday by the judgment chamber of Senegal’s Pool Judiciaire Financier sitting in flagrante delicto proceedings. The court dismissed the fraud allegations against Trera and rejected the civil claims brought by Ndiaye.
The decision comes despite Trera having acknowledged during her trial on June 4 that she owed money to Ndiaye.
However, she maintained that the dispute was purely commercial in nature and did not amount to criminal fraud. Her lawyer, Maître El Hadji Diouf, argued that prosecutors had failed to establish any fraudulent maneuvers or intent to deceive on the part of his client.
The case centered on a long-running business relationship between Trera, a trader based in The Gambia, and Ndiaye, a merchant from Bargny, Senegal. According to court proceedings, the two were introduced through a mutual contact in Touba in April 2023 and initially conducted successful rice transactions.
Ndiaye told the court that their first deal, involving 55 tonnes of rice, was completed without incident and helped establish a relationship of trust. He alleged that Trera later accumulated significant debts, initially owing him 220 million CFA francs before persuading him to continue supplying goods on credit.
According to Ndiaye, he subsequently delivered additional rice and dairy products worth 340 million CFA francs, increasing the outstanding amount to 560 million CFA francs. He claimed that when he traveled to The Gambia to recover his money, he was left waiting for 33 days before Trera informed him that the funds had been invested in 27 containers of goods arriving from Europe.
The businessman further alleged that he continued trading with Trera after interventions from her brother, Abdoulaye Téra, who is based in Dakar. A formal agreement was later signed for the delivery of 330 tonnes of rice valued at 112.2 million CFA francs, of which Ndiaye claimed 74.8 million CFA francs remained unpaid.
In what became the final disputed transaction, Ndiaye told the court that Trera convinced him to lend her 39 million CFA francs to clear customs on 15,000 bags of rice in The Gambia, promising to repay him 150 million CFA francs by April 15, 2026. He said the payment was never made.
To support his allegations, Ndiaye submitted documents including a signed acknowledgment of debt, unpaid invoices, and cheques that were allegedly returned unpaid.
Trera had been held in Senegalese custody since April 30, 2026, pending the proceedings.
Although the court ultimately found that the evidence did not establish criminal fraud, appearing to accept the defense’s argument that there had been no intention to defraud or deceive Ndiaye, the complainant has vowed to continue the legal battle.
Through his lawyers, Me Ousseynou Ngom and Me Abdy Nar Ndiaye, Ndiaye had sought one billion CFA francs in damages. Following Thursday’s verdict, he announced his intention to appeal the decision.
Leave a Reply