My father built his foundation to carry forward a mission of service, integrity, and Moroccan pride, not to honor his own legacy. It was rooted in values, not in vanity. Those he chose to lead it with him were hand-picked for their character, competence, and shared commitment to the mission, not for their allegiance to him.
After he passed, everything changed.
Soufiane Elkabous had already laid the groundwork. Before my father died, he had convinced him to appoint one of his partners as the foundation’s attorney. The same man who would later assure me that all of my inheritance papers were safe and secure with him, that I should return to the United States to complete paperwork there before taking ownership of my parents’ house and other possessions in Casablanca, and that he would ensure the transfer happened without issues. I never saw those documents again.
What happened next was not a transition. It was a hostile takeover.
Soufiane Elkabous systematically removed every person my father had personally selected to carry on his work. The competent and the benevolent. The physicians, the architects, the professionals, and the dreamers. People who had their own careers but still invested time daily alongside my father in service to the country. Not one remains.
In their place: the self-interested, the opportunists, his family members, and sycophants. All in his image. People who owe their positions to their loyalty to Elkabous and to him alone, not to merit, and not to the mission.
The foundation no longer honors my father’s work. Instead, it serves as a platform to promote Soufiane Elkabous himself. His face, his image, his narrative. Social media is full of photos and posts positioning him as the heir to my father’s legacy. But in truth, he has betrayed everything that my father stood for.
My father used his life’s work and image to promote the foundation. Now, this impostor is using the foundation to promote himself. What was once built to serve others has become a vehicle for self-promotion.
He has utilized the foundation to secure funding from private companies and government organizations, all under the guise that the same integrity and impact remained. And while some level of continuity and service may still exist, it is no longer at the core. The priorities have shifted. The image has changed. The individual now at the center of it all hijacked the foundation to construct and project an artificially enhanced image of himself.
Properly run foundations benefit society. They should not be allowed to abuse its trust. That requires independent and transparent oversight of those in charge, the integrity of the process, and the efficiency with which funds are used. At a minimum, foundations should be required to publish the percentage of funds received that are ultimately used for public benefit versus the portion spent on overhead, including salaries, perks, cars, and internal operations. Without such metrics, “non-profit” becomes little more than a label, an excuse rather than a standard. I know my father’s foundation would have passed that kind of scrutiny easily while he led it. Would it even survive it today?
The impostor has even gone so far as to rename himself “Soufiane Elkabous MJid” on the foundation’s official website, placing his own image directly beneath my father’s. M’Jid is not his name. It never was. There is no blood connection. There is no legal basis. It is a lie. Fiction presented as fact, for personal gain and public deception.
Do donors know that “Soufiane Elkabous M’Jid” is a fake name? And if they do, have they asked themselves what else might be fake? Is it possible they were presented with an image of continuity and public service that no longer reflects reality? Is it possible that donors were misled? Do donors know if they have been funding lifestyle, self-promotion, vanity, and nepotism? Do they truly believe they are still funding a righteous cause, not realizing how far that cause may have drifted from its original purpose?
Dad created and led the foundation for over fourteen years, using it to improve and enrich the lives of others. Elkabous, by contrast, has done the opposite. He has used the foundation to undeservingly elevate his status, enrich himself, and personally benefit from a name and reputation he stole.
I will return to the theft of my inheritance, committed by the crook and his accomplices, and the choice to remain silent by others. However, first, the truth about what happened to the foundation my father cared about so much that he gave it his name, my name, needed to be told.
Update (August 2025): Following the publication of this post, the foundation’s website was quietly updated, and the false name was removed. A detailed update is published here.