Hunting for Mubarak's hidden wealth will be enormous task; his official salary was $808 a month

[somone]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/13/AR2011021302092.html

Probe sought of Mubarak family's purported fortune
By KARIN LAUB and TAREK EL-TABLAWY

CAIRO -- Switzerland has frozen whatever assets Hosni Mubarak and his associates may have there, and anti-corruption campaigners are demanding the same of other countries. But experts say hunting for the deposed Egyptian leader's purported hidden wealth - let alone recovering it - will be an enormous task. Mubarak's actual worth remains a mystery. A recent claim that he and his sons Gamal and Alaa may have amassed a fortune of up to $70 billion helped drive the protests that eventually brought him down. "Oh, Mubarak, tell us where you got 70 billion dollars!" protesters chanted in demonstrations before Egypt's ruler of 30 years was driven from office Friday, and left Cairo for a gated compound in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Corruption was endemic in Mubarak's Egypt where 40 percent of the country's 80 million people live on $2 or less a day, and critics accused officials of usurping the nation's wealth. Egyptians have long complained of an unspoken policy of sweetheart deals that allowed top officials and businessmen to enrich themselves. In recent days, watchdog groups and private lawyers have demanded that the country's chief prosecutor launch criminal investigations against the Mubaraks and some of their wealthy associates. Scores of former government officials have already been banned from travel and several, among them four former Cabinet ministers, have had their assets frozen.

How far these investigations will go ultimately depends on the political will of Egypt's leadership, said Eric Lewis, a partner with Washington-based law firm Baach, Robinson & Lewis, which specializes in international asset tracing and has done work in Kenya and Pakistan. "What you often find is that while there's a kind of political impetus that seems to want to do it, the reality is that the real urge for transparency is more symbolic than real," Lewis said. Anti-corruption campaigners are calling for a speedy investigation and are urging countries other than Switzerland to freeze assets pre-emptively. "It's going to be a very difficult task, but in the interest of public money, things need to move now," said Omnia Hussien, Egypt expert at the advocacy group Transparency International.

The Mubaraks have never publicly discussed their assets. Hosni Mubarak's official monthly salary as president, counting benefits, came to 4,750 Egyptian pounds ($808), in 2007 and 2008, according to a Cairo think tank. Rumors of hidden riches, such as expensive real estate in Britain, the United States and elsewhere, were fueled by the cozy ties between the Mubaraks and Egypt's business elite. The sale of state companies and public land for cheap, starting in the 1990s, were key sources of enrichment for the two sides, said Ahmed Elsayed Elnaggar, editor of Egypt's Economic Report. "Privatization ... is the biggest corruption process in Egypt all over its history, from the period of the pharaohs, until now," he said...

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. hope they find every penny

[DCKit]

2. Think of it as a jobs program with huge dividends. nt

[Mr Generic Other]

3. "Privatization ... is the biggest corruption process in Egypt all over its history, from the period

and privatization is the process overseeing the biggest theft of the public's wealth in the united states too.