Aditi Boolell: 'The Bank of Mauritius Was Itself a Victim of Rama Sithanen's Abuse of Power'

Aditi Boolell, a figure at the centre of a growing controversy involving the Bank of Mauritius and former central bank governor Rama Sithanen, has spoken out in a detailed interview about her company Menlo Park and what she describes as a serious abuse of institutional power.

Before the dispute became public, Menlo Park was quietly building something ambitious. Founded as an artificial-intelligence-driven data company, it set out to solve a problem familiar to any retailer: understanding the customer who almost bought something but didn't. While a shop owner can learn a great deal about people who walk through the door, the person who pauses at the window and walks away remains invisible. Menlo Park built technology to close that gap.

The company's platform helps businesses, both online and in physical stores, identify the profile of people who browse their websites or visit similar platforms without completing a purchase. By analysing behavioural patterns, Menlo Park's tools allow brands to identify untapped market segments and build targeted marketing strategies to reach them.

To test the concept locally, Menlo Park launched a proof of concept in Mauritius in 2020 through a platform called Lucky Dodo. Within eight months, the company had assembled a database of 700,000 individuals, a significant data set for an island of roughly 1.3 million people. The ambition was clearly to scale far beyond the local market.

But the company's trajectory became entangled in what Boolell describes as a serious institutional dispute. She alleges that the Bank of Mauritius, Mauritius's central bank and financial regulator, was itself manipulated in this affair, rather than acting as a neutral overseer. Specifically, she points to Rama Sithanen, who served as Governor of the Bank of Mauritius from 2023, as having exercised undue influence over the institution, turning it into a vehicle for what she calls an abuse of power rather than a guardian of financial stability.

The Bank of Mauritius, known locally as the BoM, is the country's primary monetary authority. It regulates banks, manages foreign exchange reserves, and oversees financial sector licensing. Any allegation that its leadership acted improperly carries significant weight, particularly given the institution's role in maintaining confidence in Mauritius as an international financial centre.

Boolell's account raises questions that go beyond one company's grievance. If a central bank can be steered by its governor to act against private entities for reasons unrelated to legitimate regulation, the implications for investor confidence and the rule of law in Mauritius are serious.

The interview, conducted by ION News, is paywalled beyond its opening section, but the portion available establishes the commercial context of Menlo Park's work and frames the dispute as one in which a private innovator found itself caught between institutional power and personal interest at the highest levels of Mauritian finance.

What this means: This case touches on two issues that matter well beyond the parties involved. First, it raises questions about governance at the Bank of Mauritius and whether the central bank's regulatory authority was used appropriately. Second, it highlights the risks facing data and technology startups operating in Mauritius, where the legal and regulatory frameworks around AI-driven data collection are still developing. For investors and entrepreneurs looking at Mauritius as a fintech or data hub, the outcome of this dispute will be worth watching closely.

Source: ION News