How do you swindle $68 million from unsuspecting clients? Reem Leila searches for an answer A star-studded list of clients -- it includes more than 85 names -- is thought to have been duped by Nabil Mahmoud El-Boushi, the owner of Optima Security Brokerage. The victims, who include movie stars, football players and the brother of a cabinet member, are said to have lost up to $68.422 million in the scam. El-Boushi, who was arrested earlier this week in Dubai, invested their money on London and New York stock exchanges, promising returns of up to 40 per cent on investments. The local media has dubbed El-Boushi "the Egyptian Madoff", a reference to American investor Bernard Madoff who lost more than $50 billion of investors' money in what has been called the biggest fraud in history. The prosecutor-general's office is investigating complaints filed against El-Boushi. "No information will be provided to the press before the accused is tried," says judge Mohamed El-Mansi. Predictably, the moratorium on information has led to frenzied speculation in the media, with newspapers and satellite channels clamouring to report the case. Dubai police arrested El-Boushi on 3 February after a number of Egyptian and Emirati clients filed complaints against him and his partner, Fekri Badreddin Hamdi. He is expected to be handed over to the Egyptian authorities in the next few days. El-Boushi's lawyer, Maher Milad Eskandar, told Al-Ahram Weekly that his client had done nothing improper. El-Boushi simply invested money on behalf of private individuals whose funds were lost when the stock market crashed. "El-Boushi will be returning back to Egypt voluntarily as soon as the Dubai police release him following their investigations," says Eskandar, adding that Optima Securities Brokerage has no obligation to refund its clients for their losses. The plaintiffs' lawyer, Samir Sabri, insists otherwise, arguing that El-Boushi is guilty of wide-scale fraud. Sabri accuses El-Boushi of claiming to potential clients that he was a supervisor at the World Bank (WB) and a consultant working on Egypt's economic and investment policy for the next 20 years. Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation Amin Abaza has links with the company having provided 38 per cent of the set up capital. Abaza moved quickly to quash rumours of his continued involvement with Optima, issuing a statement making it clear that he resigned from his position as an executive director upon being appointed agriculture minister in 2005, and stressing that prosecutors have never implicated him in any illegal activity in connection with the company. Abaza also denies any wrongdoing during his time as an executive director at the company. Investigations have revealed that El-Boushi has no money in his local bank accounts. The Ministry of Interior's Public Funds Investigations Department says funds from El-Boushi's accounts in Egypt have been transferred abroad, mostly to Canadian banks. On 7 February Cairo Criminal Court froze the assets of El-Boushi and of his wives Nesrine Osama El-Menawi and Hekmat Buglaya and children. Businessman Amr Shoukri, who claims to have lost LE300,000 in the scam, said he had been taken in by the investment scheme because El-Boushi was widely known to be "connected with some high-profile people including the sons of prominent government officials and ministers". Another businessman, Tarek Qandil, told the Weekly that he handed over more than LE2 million to El-Boushi. "I have receipts to show that he took this sum from me," says Qandil, who adds that he was never "100 per cent sure the man was not a thief". Qandil says he was aware that the transaction involved a degree of risk but was tempted by the promise of lucrative returns. "I started doubting him last December when he stopped paying any dividends using the excuse that he was travelling," adds Qandil. A list of El-Boushi's victims, published in Rose El-Youssef newspaper, includes actresses Laila Elwi and Mervat Amin, former football star Mahmoud El-Khatib, currently the vice- president of Ahly Club, Mounir Aiyad, Fekri Hamdi and Ahmed El-Rashidi, owner of El-Rashidi El-Mizan factory.
