The Egyptian Initiative for Person Rights (EIPR) published a press release on Thursday in which the organisation claims that new information about Gamal Mubarak’s assets has come to light.
EIPR held an open discussion event on Wednesday at the Press Syndicate to launch its latest report, entitled “Can we recover our stolen assets?”. The organisation invited Nick Hildyard, director of British NGO The Corner House that “aims to support democratic and community movements for environmental and social justice”.
Hildyard, in collaboration with EIPR, has done extensive research into Mubarak’s assets in tax havens abroad, including the British Virgin Islands, and published his findings in a report entitled “Desperately Seeking Gamal”, reported EIPR. According to EIPR, Wednesday’s meeting was the first time this information had been made public.
Hildyard’s report claims that Mubarak could have used private equity firms such as Bullion and EFG-Hermes based in tax havens to launder money. This process makes the situation more complicated because these companies do not usually reveal the names of shareholders.
A representative from the British embassy also attended the event on Wednesday and “expressed the British government’s commitment to refund the looted money”, reported EIPR. The embassy representative added that the British government is “doing its best” to repatriate the money.
British Prime Minister David Cameron told President Mohamed Morsi in September that Britain is committed to returning $160m of frozen assets to Egypt.
Egypt has an estimated $700m worth of assets tied up in Switzerland. The repatriation of funds from Switzerland and the UK is dependent on the outcome of trials against members of the Mubarak family and former regime members. In January the Federal Criminal Court of Switzerland delayed the repatriation of funds to Egypt due to “political uncertainty”.
