Freezing Mubarak and Ben Ali’s Assets: Many Violations, Few Results

The Tunisian and Egyptian clans own French properties worth between €25 and €35 million, including ten luxury apartments in Paris owned by the respective families and their real estate companies. They also have millions stashed in various bank accounts. These restrictions are intended to prevent the use, alteration or transfer of assets, including bank accounts, companies, vehicles and real estate. However, research has revealed violations of these restrictions, including the transfer of numerous shares in public companies. Furthermore, freezing procedures have been manipulated to facilitate fraudulent operations, including changing the registered office address, renaming the company, mortgaging properties and deception in key financial transactions. Meanwhile, French legislation in this area has many gaps and companies registered abroad are not required to declare their beneficial owners in France.