After Hosni Mubarak?s younger son, Gamal, left his job as an executive with Bank of America in London in the mid-1990s, he joined forces with Egypt?s largest investment bank. 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 Middle East. 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 rumor 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.
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 program, in which state companies were sold to politically connected businessmen.
For years, opposition groups have contended that since Egypt privatised its economy in the 1990s, the Mubaraks and a few dozen elite families have held stakes in the sale of state assets and in new business ventures.
Later, some of these businessmen were appointed to government positions overseeing the very businesses they ran. Connections to the presidential palace brought benefits like the opportunity to develop government real estate and access to easy bank loans.