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Search is on for Mubarak’s British millions
As Egyptians celebrate his downfall, the SFO looks for Mubarak family silver
As jubilation continues in Egypt after the end of president Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule, the Serious Fraud Office has said it is investigating his assets in the UK.
Estimates of the riches amassed by Mubarak and his family over the past three decades vary from £1.3bn to £43.5bn. The loot is widely thought to be the product of corrupt business deals and the seizure of assets belonging to former presidents and the royal family.
On Friday night, the Swiss authorities announced they were freezing Mubarak's assets in Zurich, but a senior Western intelligence source has now told the Sunday Telegraph that much of that money has been moved and hidden in the last few weeks.
In fact, the source claimed that Mubarak only clung to power for the past 18 days in order to make sure his wealth was hidden beyond the reach of investigators.
Mubarak's wife, Suzanne, is half Welsh and the clan make frequent visits to the UK – and are thought to have significant assets there, including a six-story Belgravia mansion.
Former Labour foreign office minister Mark Malloch Brown yesterday accused the Government of "not being loud enough" in its condemnation of Mubarak. He told the press: "When people are forced out of office, if they have money way beyond what they should have earned, then a country like Britain should freeze those assets...
"Given [Mubarak] and his family's strong links to the UK, it is reasonable to assume at least some of his assets are here."
According to the Sunday Times, however, the SFO has now launched an investigation into Mubarak's UK holdings. SFO director Richard Alderman told the paper it was currently "taking an interest" in the whereabouts of his funds and would like to be able to freeze his assets while their origin was clarified.
The 82-year-old's multi-millionaire sons, Gamal (above, right) and Alaa (above, left), have a history of financial wheeler-dealing in London. Gamal set up an investment and consulting firm in Belgravia in the 1990s, Medinvest, through which he then operated Egypt's first private equity fund, Horus.
Horus was a $54m fund designed to invest in Egypt's newly-privatised public-sector organisation. Gamal resigned as director ten years ago but, more recently, Alaa was still listed as a director of Medinvest's parent company, Cyprus-registered Bullion.
As for Gamal, he was reportedly seen at London nightclub Tramp just one week ago, running up a £16,000 bill on champagne. ·
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I am perturbed - really perturbed! The last six weeks saw a people warp the way their destinies were wrapped for them. They changed its course through non-violence means or stealth. Last Friday saw the beginning of the end to all these mechanics. New players have now come up; those who allowed Mubarak to fill their vaults and outfits with the real revolutionaries' entitlements. The bankers and their master craftsmen are now calling on all to freeze Mubarak's assets. Why the sounding of the trumpet so late? Why did they(bankers/financiers) allow such to occur for this long? How hypocritical of these morally debased elements to want to dictate to the real morally endowed great people of Egypt? Are they qualified to do so after such a long period of deceit? I implore the Egyptian people to look beyond the vast amounts of sums to be brought back to Egypt from the retrieval process and chastised these morally bankrupt bankers and financiers. They are more culpable than Mubarak. What a boloney!!! Was Abacha's millions returned to the people of Nigeria in full? Whatever happened to Mobutu's billions in the West? The real revoluntaries will not see a dime of the wealth the hypocritical bankers are now heading to deliver to the government of Egypt. The funds should be channelled to a People's Fund and accounted for. A People's team should oversee this process!