Focus now shifts to family riches
Today he has a significant stake in a private equity company with interests throughout the Egyptian economy, from oil to agriculture to tourism, corporate records and interviews show.
During President Hosni Mubarak’s nearly 30-year rule, he and his family were not flamboyant with their wealth, particularly by the standards of other leaders in the West Asia. While there is no indication that Gamal Mubarak or the bank were involved in illegal activity, his investments show how deeply the family is woven into Egypt’s economy.
Now with Hosni Mubarak out of power, there are growing calls for an accounting to begin. Within hours of Mubarak’s resignation on Friday, Swiss officials ordered all banks in Switzerland to search for — and freeze — any assets of the former president, his family or close associates. In Egypt, opposition leaders vowed to press for a full investigation of Mubarak’s finances.
Tracing the money is likely to be difficult because business in Egypt was largely conducted in secret among a small group connected to Mubarak. “Now we open all the files,” said George Ishak, head of the National Association for Change, an opposition umbrella group.
“We will research everything, all of them: the families of the ministers, the family of the president, everyone.”
Estimates of the Mubaraks’ fortune vary wildly, including a widespread rumour that they are worth as much as $70 billion. United States officials say that figure is vastly exaggerated and put the family’s wealth at $2 billion to $3 billion.
Gamal Mubarak, who was being groomed to be the next president, and his older brother Ala’a, were considered major figures in the business elite.
Private equity
Gamal Mubarak’s private equity business came through his ties to EFG-Hermes, the largest investment bank in Egypt. EFG-Hermes, which listed assets of $8 billion on its 2010 financial statement, was pivotal in Egypt’s privatisation programme, in which state companies were sold to politically connected businessmen.
One businessman who won government approval for various major development projects is Magdi Rasekh, Ala’a Mubarak’s father-in-law. Rasekh is chairman of the board of Sixth of October Development & Investment Company, which built one of a series of sprawling new developments in the desert outside Cairo.
As attention turns to tracking the Mubaraks’ purported wealth, rumours of vast real estate holdings by the family have swirled. But the only property outside of Egypt that has emerged is the London townhouse at 28 Wilton Place in Knightsbridge where Gamal Mubarak lived when he was an investment banker there.
But determining the precise ownership of the house shows why investigating the family’s wealth is complicated. A woman answering the front door of the house said the Mubaraks had sold it, but property agents said there was no record of a sale, and neighbours said they had seen Gamal Mubarak and his family entering it several times recently.
According to British records, the home is owned by a company called Ocral Enterprises of Panama. The registered agent for the company in Panama is a local law firm. A lawyer at the firm said that he could not reveal Ocral’s owner.
The lawyer said his firm received its instructions regarding Ocral from a company in Muscat, Oman, which he declined to identify. Though Swiss banks have begun the search for Mubarak family assets, experts said any money would be returned to Egypt only if its new government formally demanded them.
“Egypt has to run a criminal investigation,” said Daniel Thelesklaf, director of the International Centre for Asset Recovery in Switzerland. “A lot will depend on the new Egyptian government.”
It is unclear whether the military, which now runs the government and has vast business holdings itself, will allow a full inquiry into the Mubarak family’s wealth.
Corruption level
Perhaps the most difficult question to answer is the level of corruption involving Hosni Mubarak himself. Former American diplomats said he appeared to live relatively simply, particularly by the standards of rulers in the region.
His main residence outside Cairo was a villa in a private compound in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el Sheik, where he went after resigning the presidency on Friday.