Sunday, July 24, 2011

Hunting For The Treasure And Wealth Of Fallen Arab Dictators

Dictators Inc. -- Time

Yehia Hussein Abdel-Hady still shudders at the memory of that morning in 2006 when he was summoned to Egypt's Ministry of Investment and handed a three-page document. "They said, 'Just sign,'" says Abdel-Hady, a ministry official who had been charged with evaluating privatization deals. The document authorized the sale of Omar Effendi, one of Egypt's biggest chains of state-owned department stores, for "the amount stipulated on the attachment," says Abdel-Hady. Yet there was no attachment. When Abdel-Hady hesitated, his colleagues ordered him not to question the document. Three days later, all 82 department stores plus the land on which they stood were sold to a Saudi businessman for about $99 million — a fraction of what Abdel-Hady had previously estimated they were worth. "The government was in a hurry to sell," he says bitterly, "no questions asked."

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My Comment:
The Arabs are not alone .... the Colombians also have the same problem with confiscated drug cartel wealth .... it has a bad habit of disappearing.

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