Luxor4u

It's rumoured that the assorted billionaires locked up by Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Riyadh Ritx-Carlton might be released (no questions asked) if they transfer a considerable chunk their assets to the state.

Now there's an enterprising idea for Sisi

As you (well) know its being implemented as we speak in Egypt - even for murder. Another Egypt first.

The problem for Saudi is that most of their thieves got the money out of the country and invested little in Saudi. A bit like some Egypt locals - so getting it back could be a bit hard.

My impression - and it's only an impression - is that any effort by Egypt to recoup the billions garnered by figures of the Mubarak era (including the Mubarak family itself) has been minimal and the sums received...derisory (in relation to the sums they had away with). The Assets Recovery Commission established in the aftermath of the 2011 revolution is still at work...at a glacial speed. Some have had their assets frozen (notably Swiss assets of Mubarak and his associates) but it may be the tip of an iceberg. Identifying, let alone recovering, assets abroad is far from easy.

The usual suspects tended not to trumpet their wealth.......althougn spending millions on a wedding, yacht and such tended to find its way into the gossip columns and raise suspicions.

I'm not aware that Hisham Talaat Moustafa "paid" for his presidential pardon....although I don't suppose it would be advertised if he did!

The state has probably benefited significantly by the seizure of assets associated with the Muslim Brotherhood or anyone perceived as associated with them. But that's a different story.

It's difficult to ascertain what, if anything, has been recouped by the state as such matters are not available for public scrutiny and the press only publishes what it is allowed to.....i.e. very little.

One excuse for the less-than-rigorous approach to asset recovery is that the current regime has had other things to worry about in recent years.

Another, wearing my cynical hat, is that coming down too hard on those you want in harness to maintain stability, support the government line and manage the "great leap forward" anticipated for the Egyptian economy is ....."unattractive".

Newcastle in my previous post on the murderer I tried to be subtle when I said that he, almost alone among Egyptians. had made a large investment in the President's New Administrative Capital. In that post I suggested that this investment might have been in 'his' future. Maybe I was right.

There were reports quite a while ago that the Sawiriss family 'settled' for $US1 billion - but there is no evidence of this in Government revenues.

Chasing down where money ends up is hard in a country which seems to have no idea of accounting or auditing and where company annual reports don't present even basic financial data - let alone in an internationally agreed format signed off by an independent expert.

I suspect that many of the 'settlements' are not going into the Commission which would put them in the budget and expose them to full view. Rather I suspect they are going into another fund, administered by a Diab which is entirely secret and is used to disperse lots of money in a less than 'logical' and transparent way. Who knows.

It has always been the case that you could 'settle' 'some' criminal/civil actions in Egypt with a payment. People assume this is always corruption - sometimes it is - but its also part of their legal traditions which even allow a murder to be settled with a cash payment to the family of the deceased. At a fundamental level the Egyptian mind has profoundly different views about justice and the law than the west. Having a French-style legal system hasn't helped them much.

Remiss of me not to spot your comment about HTM's 'investment'.

Spoiler

.(Ooops!...there I go again with superfluous parentheses. Can't remember which level of hell that consigns me to)

.

You may have something.

As to the rest.....Egypt's rumour mill is awash with speculation as to whether, and to what extent, rich businessmen have coughed up.

I doubt we'll ever know.

For sure....if there was any settlement, it will have included a "confidentiality clause".