CAIRO - Recovering the purported filched wealth of the Mubaraks, together with that of several members of their entourage and business tycoons, is today a public demand fuelled by deep resentment over injustice that prompted the January 25 protests. The British newspaper The Guardian has reported that the wealth of the Mubarak family is estimated at 74 billion dollars, of which $l2 billion belongs to the former president. Although the ABC TV news network subsequently quoted CIA sources as saying that the family's wealth stands somewhere between one and five billion dollars, these figures still present a riddle considering the actual presidential allocation. Information about the wealth of any Egyptian president or his associates has always been kept confidential. It is for this reason that no figures have so far been substantiated by authenticated documents. The extent to which it would be possible to trace such assets overseas is a big question which experts are trying to answer. The Swiss government froze last Friday, the day that Mubarak stepped down, whatever assets the Mubaraks may have there. Switzerland took this initiative, in a bid to counter criticism of its banks' harbouring of laundered money and ill-gotten funds, according to Ahmed Adam, a banking expert. Ibrahim Youssri, a former diplomat, together with some public figures including architect Mamdouh Hamza, has actually lodged reports with the Prosecutor General's office seeking a criminal investigation into the matter. Youssri told Al-Shorouq Arabic newspaper that he has in his possession documents pinpointing the corrupt practices of the Mubaraks. Similar reports have been filed against a number of outgoing ministers and business tycoons, on the grounds that their close ties with the Mubarak family had enabled them to strike suspicious deals illicitly enriching their pockets. Hussein Salem, the owner of the East Mediterranean Company, which exports natural gas to Israel, heads the list of profiteers of the Mubarak regime. According to Youssri, Salem rewarded a number of high profile officials in public oil companies, who facilitated his goal of exporting gas to Israel, by later appointing them in his companies. The purging of pilferers with corrupt pockets, whereby a new base for a democratic republic would be built, has prompted an alliance of legal and other figures to sue political symbols and businesspeople before local and international courts. They seek to repatriate public funds abused by the close circle of the regime's associates. Cases of smuggling money out of the country, which the local mass media had unveiled in the past decade or so, the period in which corruption reached its climax, have never been resolved. Close observers were quite sure that retrieving such money was a difficult task because members of the regime were immersed in the abuse of power and money. In addition, under such circumstances, the volume of the purported appropriated funds could not be estimated. Prosecutor General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud has already frozen the bank accounts of four ministers of the outgoing cabinet and banned the travel of some 43 officials, whose status has yet to be investigated. Banking expert Adam says the recovery of assets is not far-fetched if the caretaker Egyptian Government addresses world banks to freeze the unlawful assets of suspect officials. He remarked that such has been a commonplace procedure, followed by the US in particular in the context of funds alleged to be funding terrorism since the 9/11 events. Experts say that the adoption of international anti-corruption conventions, to which Egypt is a signatory, would facilitate the endeavours to recover the money smuggled out of the country. However, Adam explains that bank accounts in some offshore islands that are not subject to international laws and conventions cannot be frozen. The banking expert suggests that in the case of the State managing to restore some of the money in question, a fund could be established to decrease the budget deficit. He noted that the local debt has reached LE1 trillion owing to the defective financial policies of successive governments.
