CAIRO - Egypt's Prosecutor General has imposed a travel ban on former trade minister Rashid Mohamed Rashid on Friday and froze his assets, which are estimated to be worth LE15 billion. The decision is part of the precautionary measures taken against some ex-Ahmed Nazif Government ministers and senior officials after the Prosecutor General, Abdul Meguid Mahmoud, received complaints about theft about public money. The prosecutor imposed a travel ban on other three former ministers from the Nazif Government and a former ruling party official on Thursday. He also froze their assets. In an interview with Al-Arabiya television, Rashid said he had not been formally notified of the ban or frozen accounts, but had heard about it on television. He said he did not know what the accusations against him were . "I am a man who served my country for six and a half years and believe I have done all my duties. I am ready to confront anyone, I have no problem, but someone please tell me what is going on and what the accusation against me is," he said. Rashid said that he had declined the position of Trade Minister in Egypt's new cabinet. The previous cabinet was sacked by President Hosni Mubarak last Saturday as anti-government protests escalated across the country. In another interview with official television, Rashid said he was in Dubai and had travelled prior to the ban with the knowledge and consent of the authorities. "If they thought I had done something wrong, why did they want me to join the new Ministry ... why did they let me travel?" Rashid, a regular at the World Economic Forum in Davos, has been an important face for Egypt on the commodities market as a former minister of trade overseeing Egypt's global wheat purchases. Egypt is the world's biggest wheat importer. However, judiciary sources told Al-Messa newspaper that Rashid owned a fortune of fixed and moveable assets worth LE15 billion that he accumulated while assuming his ministerial post. "When Rashid joined the Nazif Government six years ago, he presented a financial integrity statement, indicating that he owned a personal fortune of only LE5 billion," the sources told the paper. Rashid said that he had btained assets worth LE5 billion as he was the manger and owner of a mega-family business venture for producing detergents, perfumes, food stuffs and tea imports. However, the sources told the paper that Rashid had taken a LE5 billion loan from the local banks of which he honoured only LE2 billion, while the remainder is still not paid. They claimed that Rashid, along with his family members, had left Egypt on February 1 on a private jet that took them to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with the approval and consent of the security authorities.
