The former head of the Egyptian capital market authority has been accused of tampering with stocks and shares to supply Alaa Mubarak and his associates with 330 million Egyptian pounds ($55 million), investigations by the Ministry of Justice revealed.
Ahmed Saad Abdel Latif had allegedly agreed to allow the owners of Al Mansour & Al Maghraby Investment and Development Company to purchase 807,000 shares belonging to Mr. Mubarak despite the stock being closed off to the public.
The transaction went through at a share price of 100 Egyptian pounds and took place on March 2 2008.
Four days later, Mr. Abdel Latif allowed a further purchase of 292,000 shares in the same company, but this time the share price surged to 865 pounds.
The owners of the shares this time were Mr. Mubarak and a group of other businessmen who allegedly benefitted from the illegal transaction.
Through the suspect deal, the investigation found that Mr. Mubarak profited 30 million pounds in only one day, while his profits from the increased share price (since the first transaction) amounted to a total of 300 million pounds.
With a soaring share price followed by the illegal sale of the closed-off shares, Mr. Latif allowed Mr. Mubarak and his associates to win 330 million pounds over a period of four days.
Mr. Mubarak is the son of former President Hosni Mubarak. He was detained on April 13 pending investigation into charges of alleged corruption, profiteering, misuse of power and public funds after the popular uprising that toppled his father’s rule in February.
The capital market investigation continues.
(Eman El-Shenawi, Editor of Al Arabiya English, can be reached at: eman.elshenawi@mbc.net.)
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