AS THE dust settles on Cairo’s Tahrir Square, one of the many questions facing the country is how much wealth did Egypt’s former president Hosni Mubarak and his family gather during his 30-year reign and where is it now?
Within hours of Mubarak’s fall, Swiss officials ordered banks to search for and freeze any assets of Mubarak and his family. Following reports that companies connected to the Mubarak family operate in the UK and Cyprus, a question the Cypriot authorities may want to ask is whether any funds have been illegally or improperly transferred to Cyprus.
According to The New York Times, estimates on the Mubarak family’s alleged assets vary greatly, ranging from US$2 billion to $70 billion. The paper also highlighted that one company connected to Mubarak’s son, 47-year-old Gamal, is based in Limassol.
The NYT quoted opposition leaders in Egypt pledging to push for a full investigation of Mubarak’s finances.
George Ishak, head of the National Association for Change, was quoted saying: “Now we open all the files. We will research everything, all of them: the families of the ministers, the family of the president, everyone.”
Reports surfaced yesterday that Egypt’s law enforcement authorities would launch investigations into the Mubarak family and associates today. In a country considered rife with corruption, the main focus in identifying large-scale corruption may well be on business activities in the 1990s during Egypt’s privatisation phase when state companies and land were sold off. It is now being widely reported that these state assets were sold off to a small group of elite business families in Egypt, some of whom later found their way to government positions.
In an interview with the BBC, Neil MacFarquhar, a former bureau chief for the NYT in Cairo, said tracing the money would be made more difficult as the Mubarak clan was less flamboyant than other ruling regimes in the region.
Also, business was done among a small group of military generals and the business elite. Since the military is now in charge, it seems unlikely they’ll go after the former president for that, said MacFarquhar.
Mubarak’s two sons, Gamal, who was reportedly being groomed to be the next president before the 18-day revolution changed the plans, and his elder brother Ala’a are considered big players among Egypt’s business elite.
Gamal worked as an executive with Bank of America in London in the mid-1990s, after which he set up an investment firm in London called Medinvest Associations in 1996 with two partners.
Medinvest is allegedly owned by a Cyprus-registered international securities fund based in Limassol, Bullion Company Ltd.
The New York Times reports that Gamal has close ties to the largest investment bank in Egypt called EFG-Hermes. It cites EFG-Hermes to say that Gamal owns half of Bullion while his brother Ala’a is reportedly on the board.
The paper quotes EFG-Hermes chief executive Hassan Heikal saying that Bullion owns 35 per cent of a private equity operation, which has $919 million under management, and invests in oil and gas, steel, cement, food and cattle.
According to the paper, the bank released a statement saying it received no special privileges or consideration from the Egyptian government, while Gamal has in the past denied any wrongdoing or involvement in illegitimate business activities.
When asked to comment, Attorney-general Petros Clerides told the Cyprus Mail yesterday, “This is the first I hear of it”. Asked whether the Republic’s Law Office would investigate the matter further through its Unit for Combating Money Laundering (MOKAS), Clerides said he did not wish to make any further comment.
