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

2023-03-14

CAIRO/TUNIS - Despite sanctions on the late Arab dictators Hosni Mubarak and Zine el-Abdine Ben Ali, their clans and allies still own French property worth millions, casting doubts on the effectiveness of these sanctions. Recovering Egypt’s and Tunisia’s stolen wealth remains elusive.

The Tunisian and Egyptian clans own French properties worth between €25-35m, including 10 Parisian luxury apartments owned by the respective families, real estate companies, and millions stashed in various bank accounts. These restrictions are supposed to prevent transaction, use, or alteration of assets, including bank accounts, companies, vehicles and real estate. But research has discovered violations of these restrictions, including numerous transfers of shares in public companies. Furthermore, the manipulation of freezing procedures has seen many fraudulent operations including changing the headquarters address, renaming the company, mortgaging properties, and deception in key financial transactions. Meanwhile, French legislation in this field has many gaps, and companies registered abroad are not required to declare their beneficial owners in France.

Team members

Alexandre Brutelle

Alexandre Brutelle is a foreign reporter and freelance investigative journalist.

Osama Al-Sayyad

Osama Al-Sayyad is an investigative journalist hailing from Egypt, based in The Netherlands.

Supported

€10,180 allocated on 04/05/2022.

ECB/2022/742

Grant

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